Greeting colleagues!
Welcome back to a student packed campus! I wanted to take a few minutes of your time to send an informational (and friendly) email about the V-WEP program… what it is, who it serves, and what those attendance forms are really all about!
V-WEP stands for the Vocational Education and Work Experience Program. Our program works primarily with students who are receiving social services directly from Monroe County’s Department of Human Services (DHS). Because they are receiving cash, food stamps and Medicaid these students have special requirements while attending MCC.
This includes having to WEP which is typically done on campus, in between classes, as non-paid student aides. In addition to WEP, they must also collect faculty signatures as verification of class attendance. This step is crucial in order to continue receiving benefits. In addition, these students also receive bus passes or gas allowance as well as childcare expenses so they can make it to class and not have childcare issues.
DHS expects that if their clients want a degree utilizing their support throughout the process then they must attend classes. Not only it is vital for the county’s participation rate to the federal government but it’s extremely vital to the academic success of the client. It’s one of the core values that both DHS and MCC share- Student Success!
The attendance forms do not have a logo on them - we do that to help maintain the student’s privacy but they do have the consequences on the bottom so students will know what will happen if they don’t comply.
They are due every Friday at either the DCC V-WEP office or at the Graduation office at Brighton (where I have a second office). We do occasionally allow students to submit on Monday’s if they forget to submit on Friday but they must communicate with the V-WEP office that they need an extension. Occasionally a student will forget and they cannot locate their professor, in those circumstances we ask students to email faculty and have them verify over email. They can then forward that to our office and we will submit it as verification. We don’t allow it to become a habit, and if we see a student attempting this we do meet with them about it, and offer suggestions on how to remember. For online courses they only need to print the online activity report and submit that with the other attendance forms (students are not allowed to do more than 10 credits of online courses on DHS).
Teaching faculty only need to sign once a week for a course. So if the course meets 2X’s a week, or more there is only one signature required to indicate that the student attended. Students should have the form already completed and ready for a signature before they present it to their professors, indicating the days a week the course meets such as MWF or TR or MTWR. If a class meets 2 or more times but a student missed a day in the week, then it is up to the student to prepare the attendance form accordingly. For example, the student attended Monday and Wednesday but not the Friday class the form should state MW for faculty to sign and underneath the student should have written Friday missed. For each class missed students must provide us with verification or they will put themselves at risk for losing benefits for a length of time.
Finally, we ask students to self-identify early on in the semester to their professors. We also suggest utilizing office hours or discussing the best time frames for faculty to sign. Forms can be picked up at either the VWEP office or can also be accessed at DCC Student Services website under WEP or at https://www.monroecc.edu/depts/dstuserv/wep.htm
Please feel free to call me 262- 1759 or email if you have any questions. As of April 9th I will be taking military leave and Vilma Morrow will be the VWEP contact person in my absence. Thank you.
Beatriz LeBron
DCC Student Services
02/10/2010 |