Ohio University
Graduate Catalog

Facilities and Services

Office of Graduate Student Services


The Office of Graduate Student Services assists students with the university processes of admission and registration and is a source of information on matters affecting graduate students. Personnel in this office are available for consultation and assistance on matters of interest to graduate students. All official graduate files are kept in this office.

Institutional Equity


It is the policy of Ohio University that there shall be no discrimination against any individual in educational or employment opportunities because of race, color, religion, national origin, sex, status as a disabled veteran or veteran of the Vietnam era, or disability. Also, there shall be no discrimination because of age except in compliance with age requirements of retirement plans or state and federal laws and guidelines.

Furthermore, the university conducts a vigorous affirmative action program in order to promote equal employment opportunities and to ensure nondiscrimination in all educational programs and activities.

It is a goal of Ohio University to increase the representation of underrepresented students in all of its graduate programs, and to that end, specific efforts are being undertaken by individual academic departments to recruit minority graduate students. Special opportunities for minority and/or female students have been created through grant funds in several areas including telecommunications, osteopathic medicine, electrical engineering, psychology, education, and health careers.
For more information about special opportunities, contact the graduate chair in the specific department or the dean's office in the appropriate college.

Sexual Harassment. Sexual harassment of students, staff, or faculty is prohibited at Ohio University. No male or female member of the Ohio University community, including faculty, contract staff, classified staff, and students, may sexually harass any other member of the community. Sexual harassment is a form of sex discrimination under Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 and thereby is illegal under law as well as a violation of Ohio University Policy.

A. Sexual Harassment Defined: This policy defines sexual harassment as unwanted advances, requests for sexual favors, or other verbal or physical conduct of a sexual nature when (1) submission to such conduct is made either explicitly or implicitly a term or condition of employment or of a student's status in a course, program, or activity; (2) submission to or rejection of such conduct is used as the basis for decisions affecting the individual; or (3) such conduct has the purpose or effect of unreasonably interfering with the individual's work, performance, or educational experience; or creating an intimidating, hostile, or offensive environment for work or learning.

B. Examples of Sexual Harassment (not to be construed as exhaustive): Sexual harassment may take many forms and includes (1) physical assault; (2) pressure, subtle or overt, for sexual favors accompanied by implied or overt threats concerning one's job, grades, or letters of recommendation; (3) inappropriate display of sexually suggestive objects or pictures; (4) direct propositions of a sexual nature; (5) a pattern of conduct that would discomfort or humiliate, or both, a reasonable person at whom the conduct was directed that includes one or more of the following: (a) unnecessary touching, pinching, patting, or the constant brushing against another's body; (b) use of sexually abusive language, including remarks about a person's clothing, body, bodily movement, or sexual activities; (c) unwanted and unwelcome teasing and joking of a sexual nature.

C. Enforcement: All Ohio University employees and students are responsible for compliance with this policy. All university supervisory personnel have an affirmative responsibility to discourage and eliminate conduct inconsistent with this policy. Complaints may be received and investigated only by employees who have been authorized by the institution. Authorization will be given only to those individuals who have completed training provided by staff of the Office of Affirmative Action. Any individual who is not authorized but is approached about concerns or complaints regarding harassment must direct the complainant to an authorized employee.

Because of their positions or the nature of their work, the following individuals, or their designees, shall have completed training and thereby be authorized to receive and investigate inquiries and complaints: (a) representatives of each major planning unit other than the unit head (a list will be available at the Offices of Affirmative Action and Legal Affairs); (b) representatives from the Offices of (1) Affirmative Action, (2) Health Education and Wellness, (3) Judiciaries, (4) Legal Affairs, (5) Ombudsman, (6) Personnel. When authorized employees are contacted to receive a complaint, they must consult the staff of the Office of Affirmative Action.

Career Services

The Office of Career Services offers students and alumni assistance in making career decisions, exploring career options, and conducting effective job searches. Services include the following:

In addition to the above services, which are free to all students, Career Services provides special assistance to students who are registered with the office. These may include on-campus interviewing, resume referrals, and job listings. Registration requires payment of a nominal fee; submission of required materials; and, for students graduating during the current academic year, attendance at an orientation seminar explaining services, procedures, and basic job-hunting techniques.

You are encouraged to work with Career Services throughout your university experience for assistance in all career-related matters.

Computer Services

Customer Support Services provides state-of-the-art computing resources and facilities to all Ohio University students at no charge (except for laser printing). Professors or instructors arrange for student access to course-specific computer resources.

Customer Support Services operates a number of satellite labs across the campus where you may use computer terminals or microcomputers for your academic work. Many of the microcomputers in the labs can be used to access Ohio University's network of computers.

The labs are located across the campus, including Alden Library, Computer Services Center, Copeland Hall, Ellis Hall, Grover Center, Haning Hall, Innovation Center, Morton Hall, Music Building, and Stocker Center. Many departments also operate computing labs for their own students. The departmental and Customer Support Services-managed locations have a wide variety of microcomputer software available, including FORTRAN, Pascal, Basic, WordPerfect, Excel, MacWrite, MacDraw, and many others.

Three residence halls have labs available. Jefferson Hall and Brough House each have a terminal cluster and printer connected to the campus computer network. Hoover House contains microcomputers that can also be used to access mainframe computers.

The Alden Instructional Support Lab also houses self-instructional audiovisual carrels, allowing you to use videocassette playback equipment, as well as synchronized slide and filmstrip equipment, as required by academic courses.

The main offices for Customer Support Services are housed with the Computer Services Center Instructional Support Lab, located on the ground floor of the Computer Services Center. The Alden Instructional Support Lab is located on the second floor of the Alden Library. Open lab hours for the computer labs are posted in the labs on a quarterly basis.

The Customer Support Services staff includes a consulting statistician who assists faculty and graduate students on topics ranging from research design to the use of particular software.
A network of high-speed printers is conveniently located around the campus for mainframe printed output. Most of the micro labs contain at least one letter-quality printer, and high-quality laser printer output is available in the Alden and Computer Services Center labs.

Communication Network Services (CNS) provides voice and data communications, along with local area networking support, to the campus community.

The campus telephone network, owned and maintained by Ohio University, furnishes approximately 9,000 voice lines and connects more than 110 buildings on campus through a fiber-optic network. Supporting more than 7,000 students and 3,500 faculty and staff on campus, CNS provides on-campus calling, local calling, and long distance service to the campus, as well as maintenance, installation, and technical support for microcomputer and audiovisual equipment for Ohio University.

CNS also supports the university Wide Area Network, reaching all university departments and connecting thousands of computers to campus computing resources. Links to other networks, including the Ohio Academic Resource Network (OARnet), the Internet, and the five Ohio University regional campus locations, give students and faculty the ability to access information from networks around the world.

Counseling and Psychological Services

Counseling and psychological services are available to graduate and undergraduate students on an individual and group basis for educational, career, and personal adjustment concerns. Confidential consultations are provided by Counseling and Psychological Services counselors, psychology trainees, and psychologists.

If you are having academic difficulties, you can receive help in understanding and resolving your concerns so that you can improve your performance.

If you are uncertain about your educational or career objectives, you can obtain assistance in appraising your abilities, interests, performance, etc., so that you can identify more appropriate and satisfying directions.

If you are facing personal problems of any kind (emotional, social, marital, substance abuse, stress, etc.), you can receive help in understanding and resolving those difficulties. Workshops on a variety of topics, designed to support the educational, social, and personal growth of students, are frequently offered and widely publicized.

The Miller Analogies Test (MAT) is administered biweekly.

To make an appointment to discuss your educational, career, or personal adjustment concerns, contact the receptionist on the third floor of Hudson Health Center or call 614-593-1616 between 8 a.m. and noon or 1 p.m. and 5 p.m. Monday through Friday.

Graduate Council

The Graduate Council reviews, coordinates, and serves as an advocate for graduate education at Ohio University. The council has both advisory and policy-recommending responsibilities for graduate education. The council initiates, reviews, and recommends university-wide policy and new directions for graduate education.

The Graduate Council recommends to the University Curriculum Council the initiation, implementation, and elimination of graduate programs and degrees at Ohio University. Other recommendations by the council go through the provost to the president for final approval.

The composition of the Graduate Council represents both those departments granting Ph.D. degrees and those departments offering only master's degrees.

Graduate Student Senate

The Graduate Student Senate is composed of student representatives from each graduate academic department. It represents the graduate student body in the university community and provides a forum in which graduate students can discuss issues related to their concerns about both academic and nonacademic aspects of the community.

The Graduate Student Senate is recognized by the university as the representative graduate student organization, and therefore is responsible for recommending graduate students for positions on university standing committees. The senate also awards the Outstanding Graduate Faculty Award, the Outstanding Graduate Student Award, and the Graduate Student Senate John Houk Memorial Research Grants for graduate student research. Other Graduate Student Senate activities include workshops on topics such as grant writing and library resource system identification and use, and yearly research activities on the quality of graduate life and education.

The Graduate Student Senate meets on a regular basis year round. All meetings are announced and open to the public.

For more information or a copy of the Graduate Student Senate constitution, write the President of Graduate Student Senate, Ohio University, Athens OH 45701-2979.

Health Service

Medical Services. Student Health Service, located in the Hudson Health Center, provides students with outpatient care and medical support services including health education, a pharmacy, X-rays, a clinical laboratory, and physical therapy. The health service staff consists of physicians; registered nurses; a pharmacist; a coordinator of health education services; and laboratory, X-ray, and other allied health personnel.

A continual record of your medical care is initiated and maintained for you beginning with your first visit to Hudson Health Center. Student medical records are held to the same standards of confidentiality as records in other health care facilities and will be released only upon your written authorization.

A skin test for tuberculosis is required of all new international students upon arrival on campus and of international students returning after an absence of two or more years. This test is administered by the Student Health Service at no charge to you.

Major Medical Insurance Plan. A major medical insurance plan designed to supplement the care provided by the Student Health Service is offered to every student registered for more than six hours except for those who submit evidence of coverage by a comparable private insurance plan.

The plan provides protection against major medical and surgical expenses regardless of where you may be. In addition to the medical and surgical benefits payable under the terms of the group plan contract, an accidental death payment is part of the policy.

To assist married students and single parents, a major medical-surgical expense insurance plan for dependents is available through the Ohio University comprehensive group medical insurance policy. Contact the Student Health Service business office in Hudson Health Center for information regarding the student health insurance plan.

Information Center

A complete information service for students and campus personnel, in the lobby of Baker Center, provides answers to questions regarding university services, programs, campus events, and facilities. For information, call 614-593-4000.

The Information Center has Ohio University brochures, the campus directory, academic and social calendars, and listings of university committees and departmental chairpersons. It receives applications for student participation on university committees and researches questions when information is not immediately available. In addition, it provides check cashing services and typewriter rentals.

For university personnel and student telephone numbers, call the switchboard by dialing 614-593-1000 (days) or the Student Directory at 593-2700 (evenings).

Ohio University Libraries

The Alden Library has more than 1.7 million bound volumes, more than 2 million items including microform units, maps, slides, cassettes, videotapes, disks, and other research materials, and seating for 2,800 patrons. The central facility serves the entire student body and faculty with special services available throughout the seven-story building. The library is open seven days a week for a total of 102 hours.

The main campus entrance is on the fourth floor, where the catalog terminals and main circulation desk are housed. The reference collection, library instruction, children's collection, Interlibrary Loan, and Collection Development and Technical Services staff are also located on this central floor, as is a collection of national and trade biographies. Government Documents and Archives and Special Collections occupy the fifth floor, while the top two levels contain the research collection, graduate lockers, and faculty study offices.

The Health Sciences Library, art gallery, and a reserve book room are on the third floor. On the second floor are current periodicals, the Preservation Department, and the Fine Arts Department; the Southeast Asian Collection and the Microform/Map/Nonprint Department are located on the first floor.

The main collection consists of more than 1.7 million volumes, of which more than 290,000 are government documents arranged by Superintendent of Documents classification. In addition, there are more than 300,000 items including maps, videocassettes, disks, tapes, photographs, etc., and more than 11,000 periodical titles currently received. Holdings in microform format-more than 2 million units-have increased greatly in the last few years and are an extremely rich, but often overlooked, resource base. You are encouraged to visit the microform area to explore the holdings, most of which are not listed in the catalog.

In separate buildings are the Music/Dance Library and a number of departmental collections in several scientific disciplines. Each of the regional campuses also has a well-established library.

To make the libraries' collections more accessible to users, ALICE, an online public-access catalog and circulation system, connects to and makes available resources from around the world. Catalog terminals are located throughout the library for easy access to the libraries' holdings. Remote access is available to anyone having direct or dial-in access to the university computer network. General tours, instructional lecture tours, and a video orientation presentation are offered to classes and groups upon request. Subject bibliographers are available to give assistance with problems in specific academic disciplines.

Electronic information services are available to assist graduate students and other researchers in identifying and obtaining resources. The library offers more than 80 CD-ROM products-many networked within Alden Library. Library workstations also provide access to statewide resources on OhioLINK, to national and international resources on the Internet, and to the vast OCLC union catalog. In addition, librarians can assist with online retrieval of information using several commercial data base services. Through OCLC and other networks linking libraries around the country and around the world, materials in distant collections are now easily accessible. The library participates in the age of resource sharing to better serve the graduate student.

Motor Vehicles

University policy and regulations state that no student shall drive, operate, park, or otherwise use a motor vehicle on the land and property of the university without first registering the vehicle with the director of Campus Safety. This regulation includes student-owned vehicles, as well as vehicles belonging to parents or relatives (including wives or husbands), friends, rental agencies, and dealers.

Upon registration each quarter you will be given a hang tag, which must be displayed as described in the accompanying brochure.

No two- or three-wheeled motor vehicles or motorized bicycles are permitted on university property except in areas specifically designated for the parking of those vehicles. Signs posted indicate streets closed to these vehicles.

Ombuds of the University

The ombudsman's duties include the maintenance of simple, orderly procedures for receiving requests, complaints, and grievances, both from students and from other members of the university community. The ombudsman works, where a pattern of grievances develops, for a change in regulations, procedures, or personnel, to prevent problems. Further duties include assisting individuals in accomplishing the expeditious settlement of their problems: intervening in the bureaucratic process on behalf of individuals when that process unnecessarily or unfairly impinges upon them, and using broad investigatory powers and direct and ready access to all university officials of instruction and administration. Finally, the ombudsman reports valid complaints directly to the president when no remedy has been found elsewhere in the university.

The office of the ombudsman is located in Crewson House, telephone 614-593-2627.

Research and Sponsored Programs

The Office of Research and Sponsored Programs assists faculty and graduate students in obtaining grants for external support of research, doctoral dissertations, fellowships, and other university-based projects. The office maintains a library of information sources on grant opportunities, which is open to all members of the university community. Graduate students are often appointed to externally supported faculty-directed research projects as graduate research associates and receive a stipend and tuition scholarships.



Return to 1995-1997 Graduate Catalog Table of Contents


Ohio University Front Door


University Publications and the Computer Services Center revised this file (https://www.ohio.edu/~gcat/95-97/geninfo/facility.html) April 13, 1998.

Please e-mail comments or suggestions to "gcat@www.cats.ohiou.edu."