Risk Management

Risk management and reporting for Service Learning and Academic Internship (SLAI) placements is a two-fold system managed by faculty in the S4 database, involving student placement reporting and risk management documentation, under CSU and Humboldt policy. Our office provides the support you need to make sure your Service Learning or Academic Internship course is meeting requirements and guidelines set forth by these policies. Please review the information below and the Internships, Service Learning, and Community Engagement – Criteria and Guidelines document for more details. It is highly recommended you consult our team at the CCBL with any questions.

Cal Poly Humboldt Risk Management policies and procedures ensure that:

  1. Community Partners have an approved Learning Site Agreement, or contract, in place with Humboldt that allows for Humboldt students to serve at their organizations under SAFECLIP (Student Academic Field Experience for Credit Liability Insurance Policy).
  2. Students have completed the necessary paperwork related to their service including a Release of Liability, Participation Guidelines and a Student Learning Plan.
  3. We maintain these documents for 3-5 years (varies per program) after the student's learning experience.
  4. We provide as accurate a report as possible on student placements and hours served to the CSU Chancellor's Office.

S4 is our campuswide database for ensuring these requirements are met. It serves as a repository for approved, existing community partner organizations, facilitates placement tracking, and the required student forms. The S4 database also provides a reference for the campus to locate students in times of emergency. 

General FAQ about S4 and Risk Management:

Agency: If an organization is in the S4 database, required paperwork has been established including the Learning Site Agreement (LSA) legal contract, and a Site Self-Assessment (SSA). If the agency is not in the database, we will need to establish the LSA/SSA paperwork. Faculty should first confirm that the new site is able to provide a safe and supportive educational experience for students along with general liability insurance; then faculty can start the approval process by submitting a Faculty Request for a New Learning Site form to the Center for Community Based Learning (CCBL) office. 

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Student: In S4, the student reports their placement, then completes two online forms (Release of Liability and Student Learning Plan/Participation Guidelines/AV Release). These forms are minimally required in case of audit and will remain in the database for at least 3 years.

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Community Partner Signatures are recommended but not required: A signature from the community partner on the Student Learning Plan is recommended but not required. A Time Log with a site supervisor signature is highly recommended; and while it is recommended that faculty store these Time Logs for three years, at this point it is not required.  

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Placements Prior to or After Semester of Course Enrollment:

In general, students should be conducting service hours ONLY within the semester of enrollment in the internship, Service Learning, or community-engaged learning course. (The following also applies to SAFECLIP coverage.)

The student needs to be officially admitted to and eligible to register at Cal Poly Humboldt during the current semester or the previous two semesters (i.e. fully matriculated) in all scenarios below and in the semesters in which they conduct the service hours. (If the organization requires the student to be covered by professional liability, the student must be enrolled in the specific community-engaged learning course, as this is a course fee.)

Note on Summer Internships: If students want to conduct a summer internship and count the hours for course credit, their department will need to offer the appropriate summer course with faculty fully present and overseeing the student placement hours.

Exceptions - Please contact the Center for Community Based Learning for questions on any of the following scenarios: 

Counting service hours BEFORE the semester of course enrollment can occur only under the following circumstances. 

  • The learning site must already be approved and have appropriate agreement paperwork established.

  • Hours of service need to be conducted in a reasonable timeframe before the semester officially begins (within a few weeks). Example: an organization offers a training program that starts in late December before the Cal Poly Humboldt official semester starts; the student asks faculty that these hours be counted in the Spring semester course.

  • If the student served with minors, then site background check requirements need to have been met; proof may be necessary.

  • Note: Any service hours conducted BEFORE the semester of enrollment are not advised as this may impact federal financial aid. Students can seek financial aid advice from the Financial Aid Office (826-4321 or https://www.humboldt.edu/financial-aid).

In exceptional cases, counting service hours AFTER a semester ends may occur only in the following circumstances:

  • The learning site must be approved and have appropriate agreement paperwork established.

  • Hours of service in general need to be conducted in a reasonable timeframe after the semester officially ends, see details below.

  • Course grade must be reported as Report in Progress (RP): Placements can continue after the course is finished, with SAFECLIP still effective, only if a Report in Progress (RP) is assigned to the student for the course in the grading system.  Example: Student is in a Spring course and the course ends; the student can receive a “Report in Progress” and continue service hours no more than one year from the time the class ended until they meet their requirement. In these cases, faculty would need to be available to oversee the student's service hours beyond the semester and intervene/provide guidance if any issues arise for the student at the community partner site.

    • RP (Report in Progress) Grade Definition: The university catalog (catalog.humboldt.edu) Grades & GPA section defines the appropriate use of this grading symbol: “RP is used in conjunction with thesis project and other courses where work assigned extends beyond one academic term. The RP indicates that work is in progress but that assignment of a final grade must await completion of additional work. RP is not included in the student’s grade point average. Work is to be completed in one year except for master’s thesis courses. Master’s thesis courses with an RP grade must be completed within seven years from the end of the term in which it was assigned. If an undergraduate student does not complete the coursework within one year, the RP grade will be administratively changed to a grade of F (Failure) and will be included in the student’s grade point average or to a grade of NC (No Credit) depending on the grade mode of the course. If a graduate student does not complete the coursework within seven years, the RP grade will be administratively changed to a grade of F (Failure) and will be included in the student’s grade point average or to a grade of NC (No Credit) depending on the grade mode of the course."

    • I (Incomplete) Grade Definition: The incomplete grade should only be used when appropriate student circumstances warrant this grade (not when the course or instructor circumstances go beyond the length of the regular semester). The university catalog (catalog.humboldt.edu) Grades & GPA section defines when this grade is appropriate. “The grade ‘I’ indicates that a portion of required coursework has not been completed and evaluated in the prescribed time period due to unforeseen, but fully justified reasons, and that there is still a possibility of earning credit. It is the responsibility of the student to bring pertinent information to the attention of the instructor and to determine, from the instructor, the remaining course requirements which must be satisfied to remove the Incomplete.”

Multiple Semester Placements – Report in Progress (RP): Some programs, typically Humboldt graduate programs, have internships involving ongoing placements over multiple semesters. Example: students in the Anthropology MA program or Sociology MA program enroll in their department’s Academic Internship course every semester in connection to their placement. In these cases, a student should complete their forms in S4 at the beginning of the first semester, and indicate the actual length of the internship in the appropriate S4 field, to avoid having to complete new forms every semester. 

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Employed Students: Students fully employed by their sites may be exempt from the Learning Site approval process and student forms in S4 if their employment meets certain conditions. The position needs to be legal employment (not stipended or awarded positions); the student should have secured the employment prior to discussion with faculty about receiving course credit. Essentially, Humboldt should have had no part in securing the placement or employment on behalf of the student. If these conditions are met, the student’s employment supersedes the need for Humboldt SAFECLIP program. In these cases the following is required:

  1. Proof of employment, submitted to faculty, can consist of a Letter of Acceptance, paystub, email from employer, or other official documentation.

  2. Students will report the placement in S4 at the site called “Exempt Sites for Paid and Pre-Arranged Employment.”

  3. It is recommended (but not required) that the student also complete the paper Student Learning Plan and Time Log documents (submitted to faculty) to share crucial information with the faculty and agency site supervisor.

  4. Additionally, under new Internship policy guidance: Paid placements (such as stipended/awarded, etc.) may require an agreement when students are not considered an employee of the learning site (i.e., 1099 tax form is issued to the student intern). Some paid internships might be stipended, or other positions such as contract workers might not qualify students as “employees.” In general, the student must be covered by the organization’s workers compensation to qualify as an employee and to report a placement as exempt.

  5. For more information, please contact the Center for Community Based Learning at ccbl@humboldt.edu. 

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On Campus Placements: All campus placements are required to be reported in S4. However, direct Humboldt sites are not required to have the Learning Site Agreement paperwork established. If a specific Humboldt site is not showing in the S4 database, the CCBL office can add a new site with approval of the Humboldt program site supervisor. It is recommended that students still complete their forms within S4 for the sake of due diligence.

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International Academic Internships and Service Learning: The College of Extended Education & Global Engagement-International Programs presides over all Humboldt policies and contracts related to international service and educational experiences. These conversations should begin with the Humboldt Risk Management Office and the Center for International Programs. In these cases, the CCBL is available by request of those two offices for curricular or pedagogical support only.

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Other Programs: CCBL supports site approval and risk management related to Service Learning, Academic Internships, courses piloting these programs, and other approved projects. College of Professional Studies (CPS) programs with field placements (i.e., Social Work, Nursing Teacher Education, clinical programs in Psychology and Kinesiology) should contact the CPS staff supporting these programs for more information on requirements and use of the S4 database. All other programs with students involved (placed and/or providing service, product or intellectual property) with community partners need to work with the Humboldt Risk Management, Contracts and Procurement offices to confirm requirements.

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For more information and support, please contact Center for Community Based Learning staff at ccbl@humboldt.edu.

 

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