Applying for the "S" Suffix

Benefits provided by the “S” Suffix

• It appears on student transcripts to document academic service-learning and community-based experiences, and it will provide standardized language for service-learning course expectations in the UGA Bulletin.
• For many schools and colleges, courses with the S-suffix are automatically approved as fulfilling the university’s Experiential Learning requirement.
• S-designated courses will be included in the new Experiential Learning Transcript without additional steps necessary.
• It helps the Office of Service-Learning track the prevalence of such courses and provides specialized support to instructors, such as access to service-learning assessment tools and faculty development opportunities.
• It allows faculty to document their time spent teaching service-learning courses.
• It appears on student transcripts to document academic service-learning and community-based experiences, and it will provide standardized language for service-learning course expectations in the UGA Bulletin.

To apply, follow these steps:

1. Have the Department Course Initiator login to CAPA at capa.uga.edu
2. Select “Begin a New Course Proposal” to create a new course with service-learning, or “Begin a Course Change Proposal” to add an S suffix to an existing course. You can have both an S and non-S version of a course, so the option selected will depend on the department’s needs.
3. Fill out the course ID and number and select the “Service-Learning Course (S)” radio button to indicate this will be an S-designated course.
4. Make sure to click on the “Service-Learning Course (S)” underlined link and copy the appropriate text on the estimated degree of service-learning. This will be pasted into the Non-Traditional Format field on the next screen. Click to proceed.
5. Fill out requested information and paste the degree of service-learning copied on previous screen into the Non-Traditional Format field. Include any additional course-specific information in this field along with this boilerplate text: “Course includes a service-learning project during the semester that either employs skills or knowledge learned in the course or teaches new skills or knowledge related to course objectives. Students will be involved in the planning and implementation of the project(s) and may spend time outside of the classroom.”
6. Make sure to include evidence of service-learning in the Course Objectives and/or Topical Outline section of the course approval form. Refer to the service-learning best practices handout for more information!

Please contact the Office of Service-Learning at 706-542-8924 if you have questions.

The approval process:

S designated courses go through the standard course approval process, however, the Office of Service-Learning is available for consultation or support during any stage of the process:

1. The faculty member or Department Course Initiator enters a New Course Proposal or a Course Change Proposal.
2. Proposals are reviewed and approved by departments and sent on for college/school approval.
3. Proposals with an S designation are sent to the Office of Service-Learning for comments and feedback.
4. After any suggested changes are made, proposals are sent to the University Curriculum Committee for approval.
5. Please note that this process can take some time and that there are course application deadlines you must meet in order to have courses approved by certain academic semesters. CAPA deadlines can be found online at https://capa.uga.edu.
6. There is also a process for requesting a temporary, one-semester approval for an S course to be designated/offered for the upcoming semester, if the CAPA process has been initiated but not finalized in time. Check with Curriculum Systems of the Office of Service-Learning for more about this option.