Mar 19, 2024  
Academic Catalog 2021-2022 
    
Academic Catalog 2021-2022 [ARCHIVED CATALOG]

Library & Student Services



Academic Technologies

At Fielding, your graduate education experience is shaped by the conversations you have with your peers, faculty, and staff. With our distributed learning model, we blend the best of in-person engagement and academic technologies to provide the resources, services, and support needed to facilitate interactive learning environments. 

Our academic technology resources and services enable you to work locally, while connecting you to a global community of Fielding scholars. At Fielding, these resources are strategically combined to best assist the distributed scholar-practitioner. The Information Technology and Academic Technology departments provide tools to support teaching, research, and collaboration.

Prerequisite Technology Skills

All students are required to have certain technology competencies before beginning graduate work at Fielding Graduate University.

Faculty will assume that you have the following skills on the first day of class:

  • Ability to create folders/directories
  • Ability to find files
  • Ability to save files to removable media
  • Ability to use a web browser and search the Internet
  • Ability to bookmark web pages for future reference
  • Ability to play audio and video files
  • Familiarity with a word processing program
  • Familiarity with a spreadsheet program
  • Familiarity with a computer operating system (Windows or MacOS)
  • Use an email account
  • Ability to send and receive email attachments
  • Ability to troubleshoot basic technology issues

Numerous courses in the program require additional technical competencies; you can learn more about technology prerequisites by viewing the course descriptions in the Course Catalog .

Developing Skills

To develop technology skills, students may take courses at a continuing education program or community college. These skills can also be self-taught with the help of a textbook or the instruction manual for the specific software.

To augment basic proficiencies after entering their program you can advantage of a variety of self-paced modules and resources at Fielding.

  • Current students can visit the Student Guide to Academic Technology for descriptions of academic technologies, video tutorials, student user guides, links to academic technology resources, and instructions on how to find support and submit help requests.
  • The library offers group workshops and individual appointments to assist current students with their library research. You can work with Library Services to make an appointment with a librarian for personalized assistance, get access to a variety of self-help resources, or work through the self-paced library skills training course. Your librarians are eager to hear from you and support you. Current students can connect with the Library here

You can also connect with the full array of student services at Fielding’s One-Stop Student Center.


Disability Services

Fielding is proud to support students with disabilities with the academic accommodations, and we promote an environment in which the diversity and variety of human experiences are respected and appreciated. 

Fielding provides a wide range of academic accommodations to students with verified disabilities who have completed and submitted the required documentation. Services can be provided at any location where a Fielding academic event or authorized meeting or session will take place. Services and reasonable accommodations are determined on a case-by-case basis. Depending on their documented disability, Fielding may cover resource costs for some students as part of their academic accommodations. 


Financial Aid & Scholarships

If you need funding to help cover your educational expenses, the financial aid staff are available to provide information about financial aid and scholarship resources and support in obtaining those resources. For more, visit our website.


Job Assistance Resources

Fielding Graduate University provides several resources for students and alumni who are on the job market. For doctoral and post-doctoral programs, students have assigned or chosen faculty advisor/mentors who can advise on job searches in their field of study. Master’s degree and graduate certificate programs have a program director who can serve in this role for students. Fielding offers community forums both within our internal network (myFIELDING, Moodle, the Fielding Alumni Association, and externally on social media (LinkedIn, Facebook, Twitter) where students/alumni can post job announcements and request help from the Fielding network. Specific job search assistance can also be sourced through the SOAR student assistance program. 

  • SOAR Student Assistance program - http://fgu.acisoar.com/
    • Students can reach out to ACI Specialty Benefits and let the intake specialist know that they are seeking assistance with a job search. Based on the industry or job title they are seeking, ACI’s Work/Life team will assist with researching available positions online. The Work/Life representative will then e-mail them the resources they find. 
    • It will then be up to the student to reach out to the resources to coordinate any interviews, etc. from that point forward. ACI’s goal is to be that extra hand and assist students with searching for available positions if they do not have the resources or the time to do it themselves. 
  • Fielding Alumni Association - https://alumni.fielding.edu/
    • Fielding Alumni Job Board -  https://alumni.fielding.edu/jobs
    • Directory of Fielding Alumni by location, academic programs, interest groups, and current employer
    • In-person alumni conference/national seminar presentations.
    • Professional research poster presentation opportunities
    • Continuing education and professional development offerings:
      • Alumni Association Events - https://alumni.fielding.edu/events
      • The Evidence Based Coaching (EBC) program offers monthly virtual seminars. The Evidence Based Coaching Certificate program is approved as an Accredited Coach Training Program by the International Coach Federation (ICF).
      • Fielding Graduate University is approved by the American Psychological Association to sponsor continuing education for psychologists.
  • Alumni Awards to pursue academic research and scholarship. Examples:
  • Fielding Faculty and Mentors
    • Doctoral students have chosen or assigned faculty advisors/mentors that can advise on aspects of a job search in student’s field of study.
    • Fielding faculty advisors/mentors provide letters of recommendation for jobs, scholarships, and internship/practicum sites.
    • Fielding National Sessions and Alumni conferences. Topics include:
      • How to set up a consulting company
      • How to get published in professional journals
      • How to get books published
      • How to get research accepted at peer-reviewed conferences
  • Moodle community forums: Schools/Programs have community student forums on Moodle for sharing resources, questions, and requests for help.

Library Services

In September 2018, the Fielding research library was named the Dr. Dianne Kipnes Library in recognition of the generous $1,000,000 gift from School of Psychology alum Dianne Kipnes, Ph.D. ‘98.

Fielding’s philosophy is that learning is a life-long activity. Teaching students to become skilled in finding and reviewing scholarly information is central to our library’s mission. The library provides access to an outstanding collection with breadth and depth unusual at a university of our size. The Dr. Dianne Kipnes Library includes access to 300,000 ebooks, 60,000 scholarly journals, thousands of online dissertations, and streaming video resources including clinical interview videos.

The Dr. Dianne Kipnes Library has developed a robust collection of instruction tutorials, recorded workshops and research guides. Our librarians help connect you with the databases and journals you need. The library offers instructional seminars and research appointments for individuals and groups online via web conferencing. Students are encouraged to set up an individual appointment so that the librarians can identify advanced research strategies targeted to the research topic. The library also offers library seminars and the librarians participate with faculty in seminars on Research Methods and Literature Reviews. 

The instruction and reference services are designed to fit Fielding Graduate University’s approach to learning. The librarians assist students and faculty via chat messenger, email, phone and web conference, and communicate the latest tips and news via the blog and quarterly newsletter.

Library Blog website


Office of the Registrar

The Registrar’s Office is the steward of student academic records. We coordinate services in the areas of course information, course selection, grading, concentration declaration, degree progress, certification of enrollment and degrees awarded, administration of final doctoral examinations, and protection and release of academic records. In addition, we provide timely assistance and accurate information to university administrators, faculty and staff regarding the approval process and procedures for the development of new courses and programs, as well as for the implementation of changes to existing courses and programs.

Many student and faculty academic services are available on​line via the WebAdvisor application from your myFielding landing page. We strive to provide exceptional and efficient service and to continuously adapt business processes to anticipate and reflect curriculum and technology changes, while delivering high levels of student, alumni, administrator and fac​ulty satisfaction.

Registrar office website


Office of Research & Scholarship

The Office of Research and Scholarship, under the Office of the Provost, leads research efforts at Fielding Graduate University. It encompasses the institution’s Office of Sponsored Programs, Institutional Review Board (IRB), Library, and Writing Support Services. It works in conjunction with academic programs and administrative offices to help facilitate student research training and support the doctoral dissertation research process. Faculty, students, and alumni work with this office to develop, promote, and fund their research.

The office provides opportunities for students to prepare and present their research through institutional poster sessions and funds for external research presentations.

The Office of Sponsored Programs provides technical grant writing support to faculty and students to prepare and submit proposals to governmental agencies and foundations to fund the scholarly and programmatic interests of the institution, and of its faculty, students, and alumni.

Office of Research website


Student Accounts

The student account services staff supports the accounting and administration of students’ financial activities, including the monthly payment plan, sponsored billing, and direct deposit of refunds.


Student Advising

The Advising office strives to help students understand degree requirements and create a clear pathway to program completion. We are available to support students via email, phone, and Zoom​, and hold in-person advising appointments during National Sessions. We coordinate with students and on their behalf to ensure the best possible student experience. Our goal is to help identify students’ needs for support services, offering sound guidance and direction toward available resources in a timely manner.

Specifically, Student Advising provides the following supports to students:

  • Post-orientation and advising services
  • Student success strategies
  • Assistance with policies and procedures
  • Leaves of absence
  • Professional Development Seminar (PDS or Pro-Sem) or faculty mentor changes
  • Academic progress reviews
  • Degree audits and significant milestones

As a student at Fielding, you may need advice in order to continue progressing smoothly through your program. Your administrative resource for answering questions about your academic progress in your program is the advising office. 

Office of Student Advising website 


SOAR Student Assistance Program

The SOAR Student Assistance Program offers students free and confidential counseling information and referral support on a variety of personal and professional issues that may be affecting the quality of their learning experience.

Students, and anyone in a student’s household, can schedule confidential, face-to-face, phone, video, text or chat assistance with professionals that’s private and confidential. Discussions can focus on:

  • Budgeting/estate planning
  • Child care
  • Divorce/custody
  • Family conflict
  • Goal setting
  • Grief and loss
  • Major life changes
  • Medical advocacy
  • Parenting
  • Relationships
  • Stress, anxiety, or depression
  • Wellness/work and life balance

Additional resources, including health and lifestyle assessments, soft skill courses, resource locators and interactive checklists can be found online. As a non-residential campus, there are no healthcare services provided on-site at Fielding Graduate University offices.

SOAR Student Assistance website.


Writing Support Services

The mission of Fielding’s Writing Support Services is to work with students to help them further understand and develop scholarly writing skills to ensure success in graduate education.

The online portal to the center provides videos, written guides, and self-paced courses on topics such as APA style and formatting, argumentation and organization and structure. Students can request to work one-on-one with a writing coach and receive supportive comments to help them develop their academic writing skills, with a focus on 1) key, higher order writing skills; and 2) helping them integrate and apply the feedback to improve each paper they write.

Writing Support Services website (requires Moodle login credentials)