MEMORANDUM

A College policy has been established in regard to pre-completion Optional Practical Training (O.P.T.). Pre-completion O.P.T. will very seldom be approved. Students should be encouraged to seek Post-completion O.P.T. They should apply as soon as their defense date has been set, then defend their thesis, and wait to submit final copies until they have secured an O.P.T. position.

Petitions for Pre-completion O.P.T. will be considered only if the advisor writes a memo justifying the need for the student to interrupt the graduate program and delay the writing of the thesis. A projected defense date should be included in the memo. The program's faculty graduate person must then endorse this memo before being submitted to Dean Slattery.

Students in all forms of full time O.P.T. will be changed to "X" time and may not receive any funding or tuition scholarship from the College.