Student Resources

The services provided through these areas are designed to assist all students in meeting personal and educational objectives. These include:

Advisement Services

Our Mission: Advising Center staff promote the mission of Black Hawk College by developing intentional partnerships with students to foster success in education, career, and lifelong learning.

How we carry out our mission: Students are assigned to a specific educational advisor upon application to Black Hawk College. Advisors believe that establishing and maintaining positive working relationships with students is key to student growth and success. Students are required to meet with their assigned advisor each semester if either of the following situations applies to their situation:

• Students whose language placement test results demonstrate a need to take courses in the Academic English as a Second Language Program, or
• Students who have earned less than fifteen credit hours.

Advisement may take place in-person, virtually, or by email: advqc@bhc.edu. Students should meet with their advisor regularly to ensure educational goals are met in a timely manner. Educational advisors are available year-round. At a minimum, students should follow the meeting schedule outlined below:

• February/March for Summer/Fall semester planning
• September/October for Spring semester planning

Advisors and faculty members are partners interested in your success at Black Hawk College. We encourage students to meet with faculty members who are experts in their fields and may provide valuable direction, especially when ready to graduate. Access campus-specific information by visiting www.bhc.edu/advising.

Educational Advising. Advisors are available at the East Campus and Quad Cities Advising Centers, as well as online at advqc@bhc.edu. Our advisors are all dedicated to providing the following services:

• Provide for the unique academic advising needs of a diverse student population.
• Develop student awareness and understanding that decision-making in the advising process is based on a system of shared responsibility.
• Develop educational and career plans consistent with student’s life goals.
• Provide accurate information about academic progression and graduation requirements.
• Assist student in understanding academic policies and procedures.
• Enhance student awareness and use of available institution and community recourses (e.g., financial aid, scholarships, internships, health-related resources and learning assistance programs).
• Encourage educational experiences through engagement with faculty, staff and other students.
• Develop decision-making skills.
• Reinforce student self-direction.

Articulation Services. Current information on the transferability of career and transfer program courses is available to students at www.bhc.edu/transfer. Information to assist students in appropriate course selection for baccalaureate degree requirements and specific majors is also provided.

Faculty Advising. Faculty are in a key position to explore advising issues with students including program requirements, degree and transfer options, and the development of educational plans. Some Black Hawk College programs require students to meet with a faculty advisor prior to registration.

Career Services

The purpose of Black Hawk College Career Services is to enhance student learning in pursuit of career goals and assist students, alumni, employers, and the community in developing a qualified, competitive workforce.

Career development services (career exploration, career preparation, and career readiness) are available individually or in groups, all without charge. Services range in format from credit and non-credit courses, workshops, and seminars to community presentations. Most services are free of charge with the exception of those offered for college credit. Career development services are available at each of the following Black Hawk College sites: Quad-Cities Campus, East Campus, and Quad Cities Outreach Centers.

Career Centers. The Career Services Center on the Quad-Cities Campus, and the Career Resource Center at the Quad Cities Outreach Center provide trained career advisors and extensive resources for all stages of career development and research. Research materials include occupational and career development books, internet sites, labor market trends, current job listings, and job search materials (résumés, cover letters, interviewing skills).

Career Advising. Professional services are available to help the individual make responsible decisions about career choices. Students can assess their career interests, personality traits, skills, and values through various career tests. Career assessments are available online, free of charge, at www.bhc.emsicc.com. These assessments are based on John Holland’s Occupational Themes (RIASEC). The assessment results will help students explore their interests and how they align with over 900 occupations and specific Black Hawk College programs.

Employment Assistance. Services are available at all sites to offer assistance to students, alumni and the community in finding both full-time and part-time employment. Other services include developing the skills that will help obtain jobs: interviewing techniques, résumé and cover letter writing, job applications and skills identification. Internships and job shadowing experiences are available to students. Access to internet job sites including Handshake and a variety of career fairs provide opportunities for students, alumni, and community clients to connect with employers.

Big Interview is a program that provides free, online interview practice. With Big Interview, jobseekers are able to practice interview questions with the ability to record, review, and share answers. Access Big Interview online at bhc.biginterview.com and use organization code 0542 to sign in.

For additional information please visit the Career Services webpage at www.bhc.edu/careerservices or call (309) 796-5626 or email crcstudent@bhc.edu.

Tutoring Center

The Tutoring Center, located on the lower level of Building 1 (beneath the Library), provides free tutoring services to Black Hawk College students, including individual and group tutoring, open lab tutoring, and free online tutoring 24/7 from Tutor.com (accessible directly from students’ https://learn.bhc.edu accounts). Walk-in hours for tutoring during the fall and spring semesters are Monday through Friday, 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. Tutoring is also available before and after walk-in hours by advanced scheduled appointments. If you would like to schedule a tutor appointment, stop by to fill out a request form, submit an online request form at http://www.bhc.edu/tutoring (also accessible via students’ https://learn.bhc.edu and myBHC accounts), call 309-796-5138, or email tutoring@bhc.edu. The East Campus Tutoring Center is located in Building A, Room 234 next to the Library. To schedule an East Campus tutoring appointment, call 309-854-1713. For further information, visit us online at http://www.bhc.edu/tutoring.

Counseling

The Black Hawk College counselor assists students in achieving their educational goals by providing a variety of services to support student success. Services include: career exploration and planning, testing and assessment, communication skills, test anxiety, self-esteem development, problem solving, decision making, stress management, coping skills, assertiveness training, time management and study habits, as well as other personal, social and cultural development issues. Services are confidential and available at no cost to students. Students may request to see a counselor immediately because of a crisis situation. For more information, please visit www.bhc.edu/counseling.

Peer Mentors
Peer mentors are current BHC students who work to raise awareness, provide education and serve as a resource to fellow BHC students on a wide variety of mental health issues. They provide support, challenge, commiserate, and be a cheerleader to their fellow BHC students. Most importantly, they will listen. To contact a Peer Mentor, please email counseling@bhc.edu .

Optional Disclosure of Private Mental Health Information. In accordance with the Student Optional Disclosure of Private Mental Health Act (IGP 59.1), Black Hawk College is providing students the opportunity to authorize, in writing, the disclosure of certain private mental health information to a designated person of their choosing. The Student Optional Disclosure of Private Mental Health Information Act in the state of Illinois provides you with the opportunity to designate an adult whom you would like us to contact in the event that you experience a mental health emergency that puts you or others at risk for serious injury or death. You are not required to designate a contact. If you would like to designate an Emergency Mental Health Contact, please fill out the Student Mental Health Emergency Contact Release Form at www.bhc.edu/counseling.

This Act states that an institution of higher learning may disclose mental health information if a qualified examiner makes a determination that the student poses a clear danger to himself, herself or others to protect the student or other person against a clear, imminent risk of serious physical or mental injury or disease or death being inflicted upon the person or by the student on himself, herself or another. The qualified examiner shall, as soon as practicable, but in no more than 24 hours after making the determination under this section, attempt to contact the designated person and notify the designated person that the qualified examiner has made a determination that the student poses a clear, imminent danger to himself, herself or others.

If you desire to designate a person who would receive certain private mental health information in such a situation, complete the form and indicate if you authorize, or decline to authorize, the disclosure of the information.

TimelyCare Telehealth Services
BHC students have FREE access to TimelyCare telehealth services. Providers are available to offer medical and mental health support via phone or secure video.

Services include:

• Medical (24/7): On-demand or scheduled access to a medical provider who can treat a wide range of common illnesses like cold and flu, sinus infection, allergies, and more
• TalkNow (24/7): On-demand access to a mental health professional to talk about anything at anytime.
• Scheduled Counseling: Scheduled appointments to meet with a licensed counselor (limit 6 per year)
• Psychiatry: Scheduled appointments available through a campus counseling referral
• Free Classes: Yoga, mediation, and other wellness oriented sessions.

Visits can happen from any web-enabled device - smartphone, laptop, or desktop. TimelyCare is available from anywhere in the United States. To get started, visit BHC’s TimelyCare website (www.timelycare.com/bhc) or download the app and register an account with your student BHC email address.

Zen Zone
The BHC Zen Zone is a sensory or relaxation room where students can go to engage the senses and refocus. The goal of the Zen Zone is to provide the students with a safe environment and the tools necessary to manage stress.

The Zen Zone is a place to:

• practice relaxation skills discussed in the students’ counseling work
• de-stress from daily demands
• decompress before or after an exam, clinical or lab experiences, or any time a student is overwhelmed in their day
• meditate

The room is stocked with coloring books, fidgets, eye massager, sun lamp for light therapy, white noise machine, noise cancelling earphones, and other mindfulness activities. To reserve a time in the Zen Zone email counseling@bhc.edu.

Homeless and At-Risk Students. In an effort to provide assistance to students experiencing homelessness and in accordance with IL Public Act 102-0083, BHC has designated a liaison to assist enrolled BHC homeless students. If you are at risk or are experiencing homelessness, contact Wendy Bock, Counselor: counseling@bhc.edu. She will assist and provide state and local resources.

Homeless is defined as a student who does not have a fixed, regular, and adequate nighttime residence. This includes, but is not limited to, students who:

• Are sharing the housing of other persons due to loss of housing, economic hardship, or a similar reason;
• Are living in motels, hotels, trailer parks, or campgrounds due to lack of alternative accommodations;
• Are living in emergency or transitional shelters;
• Have a primary nighttime residence that is a public or private place not designated for or ordinarily used as a regular sleeping accommodation for human beings; or
• Are living in cars, parks, public spaces, abandoned buildings, substandard housing, bus or train stations, or similar settings.

Disability Accommodations

Black Hawk College is committed to making its services, programs, and activities equally available to people with disabilities. Disability Resources & Access staff provide assistance to students with a wide range of disabilities including hearing loss, vision loss, mobility disabilities, learning disabilities, ADHD, and others. Examples of services to students include note-taking assistance, testing accommodations, computer-assistive technology, adaptive equipment, and sign language interpreters. Appropriate accommodations are identified on an individual basis. It is the student’s responsibility to self-identify to Disability Resources & Access staff and provide documentation of disability. Persons with disabilities are encouraged to complete this first step as early as possible before the start of the semester.

Early Alert

The purpose of the Early Alert Program at BHC is to help our campus create an early warning program to alert us to students who are facing academic difficulty early in the semester. The intention of this program which was designed and implemented directly from the Process Improvement Charter in 2008 is to give BHC staff and faculty the time needed to intervene and give students the help they need to succeed academically.

How the Program Works:

• Faculty complete and submit notifications electronically via workflow in myBHC.
• Educational Advisor assigned to the student reviews the alert and pays special attention to faculty comments.
• Students are contacted via phone, e-mail and regular mail.
• Meetings are set up with students to discuss the faculty’s feedback.
• Discuss appropriate remedies with the student for improving.
• Follow-up e-mail is sent to faculty concerning individual students.
• Provide appropriate feedback and follow-up to the student as needed.
• Evaluate the program annually and improve as needed.

Enrollment Services

Enrollment Services offers assistance in the areas of admissions, registration, and academic records. The Enrollment Services Office provides general College information; provides admission guidelines and program-specific admission requirements; assists students in the enrollment process; maintains academic records of students; and confirms completion of degree and certificate requirements.

Financial Aid

The goal of the financial aid program is to help remove the economic barriers to higher education for all individuals in our community. Black Hawk College attempts to provide financial assistance for students through scholarships, grants, loans, and work opportunities. Financial aid may be offered singly or in various combinations.

The taxpayers of the district and the state underwrite a sizable part of the cost of education at Black Hawk College. Therefore, all Illinois residents are provided aid through low tuition charges. A student and his/her family are expected to make a maximum effort to assist with college expenses. College financial assistance should be regarded as a supplement to the effort of the family.

Food Pantries

Black Hawk College’s Counseling Services has partnered with River Bend Foodbank to provide free perishable and non-perishable food to any BHC student in need. There are pantries located at each campus - Hawk’s Cupboard is in Building 4, Room 213 at the Quad-Cities Campus, and The Kitchen is in Building 1 at the East Campus. Students can have access to either food pantry at any time by directly stopping by each pantry, contacting the BHC Counselor at counseling@bhc.edu, or contacting BHC Police at QC: (309) 309-796-5913 or EC: 309-854-1784.

Bursar Office

The Bursar’s Office offers a variety of services related to student accounts, including: providing student account and billing information, offering multiple payment options, applying payments for tuition, fees and miscellaneous campus charges to student account, managing refunds on student accounts and providing 1098-T tax reporting annually. Detailed information on all of these offerings is available on the myBHC Student Billing tab.

Housing

Quad-Cities Campus. Black Hawk College Quad-Cities Campus contracted with Bluffstone to build and manage college student housing on the Quad-Cities Campus. The building was completed and opened in fall 2013 with 120 beds in two- and four-bedroom fully furnished units. Each unit has a private bedroom and bath for each student. The apartment complex offers 24-hour security, on-site property manager, a student social room, state of the art fitness center, laundry facilities and more.

For more information contact The Villas at Black Hawk at 309-756-8654.

East Campus. Prairie Pointe Apartments is located just steps away from the East Campus, offering two- and four-person fully furnished units. Each tenant shares a bedroom. The apartment complex offers 24-hour security, on-site property manager, laundry facilities and more. Close to the Ag Arena, a perfect option for those with horses on campus. Prairie Pointe Apartments, LLC is owned by the Black Hawk College East Foundation and managed by Bluffstone, LLC. For more information contact Prairie Pointe Apartments at 309-852-0093.

Students interested in lists of other housing at the East Campus should contact the Recruitment office. This is an availability list, not an authorized list attesting to the quality of housing provided.

Testing Center

Quad-Cities Campus. The Testing Center, located on the lower level of Building 1, is an area in which students are provided with testing services. The Testing Center provides proctoring services for: paper/pencilmakeup, computerized tests, classroom makeup, other institutions, placement tests, GED, and PearsonVue tests.

East Campus. The East Campus Testing Center is located on the second level of Building A, is an area where students are provided with testing services. The testing center provides proctoring services for: paper/pencil makeup, computerized tests, classroom makeup, other institutions, and placement tests.

Intercollegiate Athletics

The intercollegiate athletic program at Black Hawk College provides men and women an opportunity to compete on a number of very successful athletic teams. Black Hawk College is a member of the Arrowhead Athletic Conference which consists of seven community colleges located in central and northwestern Illinois: Black Hawk College East Campus, Black Hawk College Quad-Cities Campus, Carl Sandburg (Galesburg), Highland (Freeport), Illinois Valley (Oglesby), Kishwaukee (Malta) and Sauk Valley (Dixon). Non-conference athletic events are also scheduled with other Illinois and Iowa colleges.

To be eligible for intercollegiate athletic participation, a student must enroll in and complete at least 12 credit hours of credit each semester while maintaining a satisfactory grade point average.

Libraries

The Quad-Cities Campus Library and the East Campus Gust E. Lundberg Library provide access to collections of print and online resources for students, faculty, and staff. The libraries participate in the I-Share library consortium. References services, library instruction, circulation services, reserves, and interlibrary loans are provided. The library website at www.bhc.edu/library provides access to the online catalog, article databases, and detailed information about library services.

Military and Student Veteran Center

The Military and Student Veterans Center on the Quad-Cities Campus is located in Building 4, Room 117. It is a welcome center where military and veteran students, faculty and staff may go to receive information, assistance and referrals to college departments and community agencies as they transition to college and workforce. For more information, please visit www.bhc.edu/veterans.

TRIO Student Support Services

The TRIO Student Support Services program, located on the lower level of Building 1 (beneath the Library), provides individualized guidance and comprehensive academic support to students admitted into the program. Specific services include holistic academic advising and in-depth transfer planning, major and career exploration, academic success coaching and mentoring, help navigating financial obstacles, financial aid and scholarship guidance, and academic tutoring, among others. Admitted participants are entitled to select textbook access, TRIO Grant Aid, the TRIO Foundation Scholarship, academic and financial skill-building workshops, campus visits, and cultural events. The TRIO SSS program is federally funded and open to first-generation, income-eligible, and disabled students. For more information, including a program application, visit the TRIO Student Support Services website at www.bhc.edu/trio , call 309-796-5138, or e-mail triosss@bhc.edu.

Code of Student Conduct and Disciplinary Procedures

The Code of Student Conduct has been established to maintain order on campus and to guarantee the broadest range of freedom for all who come to learn at Black Hawk College.

Each student is responsible for knowledge of and compliance with this Code of Student Conduct, which is available in the Student Handbook at www.bhc.edu/studenthandbook or through the Office of the Dean of Student Services.

The College further recognizes each student’s right to procedural due process, including notice, an opportunity to respond to the allegations, and an appeal process. Any student cited for violation of the Code of Student Conduct will:

1. receive notice of the alleged violation. The notice will include:
   1. the specific code violations; and
   2. reference to the process and rights of students as indicated in the Code of Student Conduct;
2. be provided an opportunity to respond to the charges;
3. be able to appeal the decision, if necessary;
4. not be permitted to withdraw from the College with a clear record until such charges have been resolved..

Students who would like to discuss the alleged violation before the hearing occurs should contact the Dean of Student Services.