Description

The Guidance and Counseling Office is committed to the mission and objectives of the Polytechnic University of Puerto Rico, providing students with the necessary tools to maximize their academic, social, personal and professional potential. This office is assigned to the Vice-presidency of Enrollment and Student Services. Its purpose is to assist students in the transition from high school to a university institution, and to help them with personal and family issues, making decisions, and any situation that does not allow them to accomplish their personal objectives. The office offers students the necessary tools to achieve their academic goals. Guidance, academic planning, enrollment, personal and vocational counseling, and referrals are, among others, the services offered by our office. Our counselor team works in coordination with the faculty and other service offices to develop institutional procedures that will help every student achieve academic success.

Our personnel at the Office of Guidance and Counseling is:

• Director
• Rehabilitation Counselor
• Psychological Counselor
• Two Professional Counselors
• Administrative Assistant
• Assistant for Special Events

Our Office

Vision

The vision of the Guidance and Counseling Office is to foster an integral development for students, identifying their needs and supplying the resources that will help them achieve their academic goals.

Mission

Our mission is to obtain a better understanding of our students’ needs. Identifying with particular attention those students that display high-risk situations. Reinforcing the conditions that stimulate learning and individual and collective development within an education and personal environment.

Goals

Counseling is an educational service that allows individual and collective follow up in the formative process of students at all levels. The Guidance and Counseling Office is committed to the mission and objectives of the Polytechnic University of Puerto Rico, providing students with the necessary tools to maximize their academic, social, personal and professional potential. Our counselor team works in coordination with the faculty and other service offices to develop institutional procedures that will help improve the student retention index.

Principles

• To foster the student’s integral development and qualified insertion into the job market, offering a wide variety of opportunities for personal, academic and social growth.
• Deliver counseling services to the general academic community, focusing on those students that exhibit high-risk traits and display any sort of special needs.
• Early identification and intervention with students who potentially display high-risk traits.
• Foster the involvement from faculty and other student service areas into the process of planning counseling services.
• Foster and promote the development of support groups for students to receive the necessary counseling services.
• Offer the faculty strategies for intervention, seeking to cooperate with the teaching-learning process.

Services

Do you know what a counselor does in your university?

A professional counselor works with the process of providing professional help. This process happens by means of a professional and direct relationship with students. Its purpose is to foster students’ development and integral wellbeing. By being a student at PUPR, you could benefit from these services at any moment during the time you are studying with us. We invite you to think of us as a tool available to help you achieve your goals. Our counselors also offer you security and confidence. They are regulated by the Health Practitioners Examining Board of Puerto Rico, which requires professionals to have a license to provide services. This guarantees that they are led by the profession’s code of ethics and a strict confidentiality when providing services.

• Academic Planning
• Counseling for the adjustment to university life
• Development of skills for decision-making
• Occupational Counseling
• Academic Counseling
• Personal Counseling
• Identification of barriers or limitations for professional development
• Strategies for managing time and stress
• Study habits
• Interpersonal relationships
• Effective management of personal situations (family, romantic, emotional, among others)
• Referrals to other agencies for specialized services
• Workshops, lectures and educational events to promote quality of life

People with Disabilities and Reasonable Accommodation

The purpose of this service is to provide equal opportunities to people with physical, mental, neuropsychological, sensory and emotional disabilities that may limit their daily activities in an academic environment. It is our responsibility to process and carry out the necessary adjustments so that disabled students can successfully request our service.

• We offer coordination services for reasonable accommodation whenever a student requests it.
• Train faculty and personnel about the American with Disabilities Act (ADA) and other topics related to people with disabilities.
• Provide academic, personal and occupational counseling.
• Coordinate student services with the Vocational Rehabilitation Administration.

What is Reasonable Accommodation?

• It is the adjustments or modification to the academic environment to equalize people with disabilities to the rest of the group, so they may carry out the tasks required by their studies.
• It is any type of adjustment necessary to guarantee a disabled person equal rights and privileges as those of someone without disability.
• These adjustments allow the person to comply with the requirements from their courses in spite of their limitations.
• This service should be requested by students with disabilities. They must follow the established institutional procedure to be able to coordinate reasonable accommodation.

To request and receive reasonable accommodation in our institution:

• Students who wish to receive reasonable accommodation in our institution must complete an application and submit it to the counselor assigned to people with disabilities.
• With this application, students must submit recent medical evidence from their specialist stating their diagnosis and the kind of reasonable accommodation recommended for their condition. If a student is a participant in the Vocational Rehabilitation Administration, no medical evidence is necessary, but they must submit a recent certification indicating an active status with this administration, the diagnosis for which they are eligible, and the kind of reasonable accommodation recommended by the specialist for their condition. These documents must be submitted to the counselor assigned to people with disabilities, located on the first floor of the main building (M- 109).
• Once the documents have been submitted, the student should sign an authorization for the counselor to open a confidential record. The counselor will open this record with the student’s medical and personal information. The counselor will coordinate the reasonable accommodations requested by the student and justified by their specialist. This record will be confidential and will be used with the express purpose of coordinating reasonable accommodation services.
• At the beginning of each quarter, the student is responsible for requesting reasonable accommodation so the counselor may coordinate these services (such as tutoring, interpreters, note-takers, among others).
• When students request reasonable accommodation, they will receive a letter addressed to their professors to notify them of the measures of reasonable accommodation they should adopt in class according to the student’s condition. The letter will be confidential, and the student’s condition will not be disclosed. It will only explain the reasonable accommodations the professor should make. Students should submit this letter to their professors. Each professor should sign the acknowledgement of receipt to confirm receipt of the letter. Students should then submit the acknowledgement of receipt to their counselor. This document will be kept in the student’s record. Any concerns or questions about reasonable accommodations should be discussed with the counselor.

For more information, you may contact Sandra Lugo (Institutional Counselor PUPR) at 787-622-8000, ext. 337, or email slugo@pupr.edu, or you may visit her office, located on the first floor of the main building (M), Office M-102 (Financial Assistance hallway).

Program for Quality of Life

The Program for Quality of Life of the Polytechnic University of Puerto Rico aims to provide an opportunity to develop positive attitudes towards life by discouraging the use or abuse of alcohol or controlled substances, as well as to work to prevent HIV/AIDS, tobacco use and violence.

The Program offers information and countless alternatives to create awareness in the general academic community so they will learn to recognize their limits and establish control over them. The Program emerged as part of the requirements from the US Department of Education through the Drug Free Schools and Communities Act of 1989.

The Polytechnic University is registered in the Consorcio de Recursos Universitarios Sembrando Alianza de Alerta a las Drogas, el Alcohol y la Violencia (CRUSADA). This consortium seeks to foster university environments free of the use and abuse of alcohol, drugs and violence, and to promote positive and healthy lifestyles in the academic community.

Services we offer:

• Activities on the use and abuse of alcohol, drugs and tobacco
• Workshops on high-risk and violent behavior
• Health fairs
• Lectures on the prevention of sex crimes
• Health Fair & Blood Drives
• Doping in sports
• Promotion for a Secure Intercollegiate Games
• Integral Health Fair
• Lecture on Preventing the Use of Alcohol on the Road

W.H.E.P.A.

The Counseling Student Program Wellness and Health Education Peer Adviser is constituted by volunteering students and a counselor assigned to the development of this program. This group serves as a link between the academic community and the Professional Counselors from the Office of Guidance and Counseling. The Program is based on peer counseling, where a group of peers works with their colleagues to carry out events for prevention and guidance.

Psychological Services

The Polytechnic University of Puerto Rico offers psychological services to its students. These services seek to favor the integral psychosocial wellbeing of the academic community. To be able to obtain these services, students must submit a referral from their counselor and the class program for the current quarter. Services will be offered up to an additional quarter after students have terminated their academic relationship with the institution.

Currently, Dr. Norma Tirado, Clinical Psychologist, offers her services on Tuesdays and Thursdays, from 9:00 am to 6:00pm. These services are offered at the Main Building, Office M-105.

Academic Planning

This is the process where students, along with their counselor, select the courses they will take the next quarter and/or throughout their whole academic career until graduation. Academic planning helps students organize their academic development and helps them select courses during the enrollment period.

Process for Withdrawal

What is a partial withdrawal? A partial withdrawal happens when a student is taking more than one course and withdraws from some, but remains registered in others. This will appear in your transcript as a W note. This note will not be eliminated from your transcript, even if you take the course again.

What is a complete withdrawal? A complete withdrawal happens when a student is not registered in any courses after the withdrawal process, even if the student withdrew from only one course and plans to enroll next quarter. This will appear in your transcript as a W note. This note will not be eliminated from your transcript, even if you take the course again.

Procedure for Withdrawals

The necessary document is available at the Center for Integrated Services, and it explains the following steps:

• Complete the document in all its parts. It is crucial that the student includes student number and all course information.
• Afterwards, please go to the Office of Guidance and Counseling.
• If this is a complete withdrawal, you must obtain a signature from Library personnel. Partial withdrawals do not have this requirement.
• Go to the Registrar’s Office.
• Go to the Financial Assistance Office.
• Go to the Center for Integrated Services or the Finance Department to pay the withdrawal fee.

For the online partial withdrawal process, the student must access their account at http://mypoly.pupr.edu/ics/. The withdrawal process for one course is the same for online enrollment, but instead of selecting Add, you must select Drop to drop the course. Remember to visit your counselor for guidance on your academic progress.

Change of Concentration

Process to change concentration

• You must fill the Department Change Form (this document is available at the Center for Integrated Services).
• The document must be submitted to the director of the department you wish to join and the director if the department you wish to leave.
• Once both directors have signed the document, the student must proceed to pay the fee for change of concentration at the Center for Integrated Services. The change will be processed there.
• The director must notify the student and the Registrar’s Office by writing about the situation on the new curriculum (current at the moment of the change).
• Students with conditional admission may not change concentration until they become regular students at the institution.
• High school students with a GPA lower than 2.50 and those with a conditional transfer from another university will be admitted either at the Business Administration Program or the Architecture program, and they will be able to request a change in concentration if they fulfill the following criteria:
  • Have taken no fewer than 24 credits in the program of admission.
  • Have a cumulative GPA of 2.25 or higher.
  • Have approved 75% of attempted courses.

PoliOrienta Bulletin

Directory

Directory for Office of Guidance and Counseling

Bank of Resources

Office Hours

Monday to Thursday: 8:00 am – 7:00 pm

Friday: 8:00am – 3:00pm

Saturday: 8:00am – 12:00pm

Sunday: Closed