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What You Need to Know

Drop for Non-Payment Information

• • Students currently at collections and/or written off are not permitted to register even if their amount due/balance is below $500.  The amount due/balance at collections and/or written off balances must be paid in FULL.
  • Students with account balances of at least $500 will not be allowed to maintain registration for Spring 2025 courses. An account balance can include charges from the Spring 2025 semester in addition to any outstanding balances from past semesters.
  • Students who register for Spring 2025 courses prior to January 3 and who carry an account balance of at least $500 as of January 8 will be dropped from all courses on January 9.
  • Students who register for Spring 2025 courses prior to January 17 and who carry an account balance of at least $500 as of January 23 will be dropped from all courses on January 24.
  • Students who register for Spring 2025 courses prior to January 24  and who carry an account balance of at least $500 as of January 28 will be dropped from all courses on January 29
  • Students who register for late start classes in Part of term 7B (start date March 28) in the Spring 2025 term and who carry an account balance of at least $500 as of March 21 will be dropped from those courses on March 24. 
  • Students who register for late start classes in Part of term 7B (start date March 28) in the Spring 2025 term and who carry an account balance of at least $500 as of March 31 will be dropped from all courses on April 1. 
• • Students who register for Summer 2025 courses prior to April 1 and who carry an account balance of at least $500 as of April 15 will be dropped from all courses on April 16.
  • Students who register for Summer 2025 courses prior to May 1 and who carry an account balance of at least $500 as of May 15 will be dropped from all courses on May 16
  • Students who register for Summer 2025 courses prior to May 22 and who carry an account balance of at least $500 as of May 27 will be dropped from all courses on May 28.
  • Students who register for Summer 2025 courses in Part of Term 5A, 5B, 7A & 10A only prior to May 29 and who carry an account balance of at least $500 as of June 1 will be dropped from all courses on June 2.
  • Students who register for Summer 2025 courses in Part of Term 5B prior to July 1 and who carry an account balance of at least $500 as of July 7 will be dropped from all courses on July 8.
  • Students who register for Summer 2025 courses in Part of Term 5B prior to July 7 and who carry an account balance of at least $500 as of July 8 will be dropped from all courses on July 9.
• • Students who register for Fall 2025 courses prior to August 4 and who carry an account balance of at least $500 as of August 14 will be dropped from all courses on August 15.
  • Students who register for Fall 2025 courses prior to August 15 and who carry an account balance of at least $500 as of August 21 will be dropped from all courses on August 22.
  • Students who register for Fall 2025 courses prior to August 27 and who carry an account balance of at least $500 as of September 2 will be dropped from all courses on September 3.
  • Students who register for Fall 2025 courses in Part of Term 5B, 5C, 7B & LS prior to September 10 and who carry an account balance of at least $500 as of September 15 will be dropped from all courses on September 16.
  • Students who register for Fall 2025 courses in Part of Term 5B prior to October 1 and who carry an account balance of at least $500 as of October 2 will be dropped from all courses on October 3.
  • Students who register for Fall 2025 courses in Part of Term 7B prior to October 22 and who carry an account balance of at least $500 as of October 24 will be dropped from all courses on October 27 at 12pm.
  • Students who register for Fall 2025 courses in Part of Term 5C prior to November 5 and who carry an account balance of at least $500 as of November 6 will be dropped from all courses on November 7.

Paying for Classes

Credit/Debit Card Payments and Service Fees

Frequently Asked Questions

• CT State will accept Visa, Amex, Discover and MasterCard credit cards. All credit card payments will be accepted online only and will be processed on CT State’s behalf through the TouchNet Payment Portal, which has been certified compliant with credit card security regulations, ensuring continued security for students and authorized payers’ financial data. No mailed, faxed or in-person credit card transaction will be accepted. For all credit card transactions, Touchnet will assess a 2.95% / $3 minimum non-refundable service fee. Debit card transactions will also only be accepted online and will be processed as a credit card transaction subject to the same 2.95% service fee.

  The service fee rate for International PayPath transactions will be 4.25%.
  Electronic check transactions will remain free of fees.

• When you process an online credit card payment you will receive a message asking that you agree to pay a service fee for the convenience of using a credit card. The convenience fee will be calculated at a 2.95% / $3 minimum on the amount paid by the credit card. The service fee for International PayPath transactions will be 4.25%/ $3 minimum on the amount paid by the credit card.

• No. The service fee is a non-refundable charge.

• There are several other options to pay a bill which include:

  1. ELECTRONIC CHECK: Online payment by eCheck/ACH uses funds directly from a checking or savings account. Payments by eCheck are secure, instantly applied to the account and are processed on CT State’s behalf through the TouchNet Payment Portal without assessment of any fees.
  2. IN-PERSON: Payment in-person by cash, check or money order can be presented at the Bursar’s Office during regular business hours. While credit card payments will not be accepted for in-person payments, computer kiosks that are located near the Busiess/Bursar’s Offices where credit card payments can be made. The non-refundable convenience fee will apply.
  3. BY MAIL: Check and money order payments can be made out to CT State Community College and sent to your home campus Business/ Bursar’s Office.
  4. Payment Plans: In addition to these payment options CT State will continue to provide Payment Plans. Payment plans allow assessed charges to be paid in installments per term helping students and their families fit these costs into their budgets.

  Learn How to Set Up a Payment Plan

• No. The credit card companies will not honor checks used electronically. The payment will be returned as "account not found," and a $25 returned check fee will be assessed. You may use these checks through the mail or in person only.

Services Provided

Confidentiality

Counselor and Counselor/Client Relationship

Appointments and Cancellations

Client Rights and Responsibilities

Electronic Communication

Telehealth Counseling

Consent to Treatment

About the Institutional Review Board (IRB)

IRB Members

Due Dates and Meeting Schedule

Forms

Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ)

• Does my research proposal require IRB approval?

  If you wish to conduct research with human subjects at CT State, including students, administrators, faculty, or staff, you must apply for IRB approval before beginning your research. Federal regulations and CT State policies require IRB approval for research with human subjects.

  The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) Office of Human Research Protections provides guidance to help researchers determine if IRB approval will be required. Their decision charts can be found here.

• What are CT State's research requirements?

  All research conducted at CT State must be carried out under the supervision of a CT State faculty (tenured or tenure track) or staff member and have the approval of the IRB. Researchers from other institutions seeking to conduct research at CT State must collaborate with a CT State sponsor who ensures that the research is conducted in accordance with the approval conditions of the CT State IRB and that all reports are submitted in a timely manner. Please note that CT State does not permit class (instructional) time to be used for research studies and students and employees should not feel compelled to participate in any research studies.

  Any individual conducting research at CT State must successfully complete the National Institutes of Health (NIH), Protecting Human Research Participants (PHRP), U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) Human Research Protection Foundational Training (specifically, Lesson 1), which is free, or other comparable training. Each researcher must provide their training certificate as part of CT State’s IRB Application.

• What are CT State guidelines for student research courses?

  Human Research Protection Training

  Every student in a research course must complete the National Institutes of Health (NIH), Protecting Human Research Participants (PHRP), U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) Human Research Protection Foundational Training (specifically, Lesson 1), which is free, or other comparable training.

  Ethical Review of Student Research Proposals

  Firstly, student research proposals must:

  • meet the regulatory definition of minimal risk human subject research;
  • not have any federal funding sources;
  • not involve Food and Drug Administration (FDA) regulated products;
  • not require parent permission for children/minors as subjects;
  • not target pregnant women; and
  • not involve prisoners.

  Otherwise, the student needs to apply to the CT State IRB. Also, if the student intends to present or publish their research externally, the student needs to apply to the CT State IRB.

  All student research proposals that meet the criteria above must be reviewed based on ethical principles and guidelines for research involving human subjects derived from the Belmont Report. Specifically, three basic principles are particularly relevant to the ethics of research involving human subjects: (i) respect for persons, (ii) beneficence, and (iii) justice. These principles are described in further detail below.

  • Respect for Persons. Respect for persons incorporates at least two ethical convictions: first, that individuals should be treated as autonomous agents and, second, that persons with diminished autonomy are entitled to protection. Respect for persons demands that human subjects enter into the research voluntarily and with adequate information via a consent form.
  • Beneficence. Persons are treated in an ethical manner not only by respecting their decisions and protecting them from harm, but also by making efforts to secure their well-being. Two general rules of beneficent actions are (i) do not harm and (ii) maximize possible benefits and minimize possible harms.
  • Justice. Who ought to receive the benefits of research and bear its burdens? This is a question of justice in the sense of “fairness in distribution” or “what is deserved.” An injustice occurs when some benefit to which a person is entitled is denied without good reason or when some burden is imposed unduly. There are several widely accepted formulations of just ways to distribute burdens and benefits; for example, (i) to each person an equal share, (ii) to each person according to individual need, (iii) to each person according to individual effort, (iv) to each person according to societal contribution, and (v) to each person according to merit.

  IT Policies, Data Privacy Guidelines, and Survey Guidelines

  The student investigator is responsible for all aspects of the research study including but not limited to the collection, transmission, storage, backup, and security of data. All student investigators must adhere to the Connecticut State Colleges & Universities (CSCU) IT policies and CSCU data privacy guidelines.  

  Also, please note that survey administration at CT State, if applicable, is subject to the approval of the CT State President or their designee for two or more campuses or the Campus Chief Executive Officer (CEO) for one campus. Also, student investigators must use CSCU approved and licensed applications to conduct surveys at CT State.

  Oversight and Monitoring

  The faculty member teaching the student research course is responsible for overseeing and monitoring student research studies involving human subjects. If any problems with human subjects or unexpected adverse events, including but not limited to a breach in data security, occur as a result of a student research study, you must immediately notify the CT State IRB at ctstate-irb@ct.edu and the CSCU Information Security Program Office (ISPO) at security@ct.edu.

  Record-Keeping

  Records must be retained for at least three years after completion of the research (See 45 CFR 46.115(b)) in accordance with the Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act (FERPA) and/or the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPPA), as amended. Additionally, records must be accessible for inspection and copying at reasonable times and in a reasonable manner upon request. 

• What are CT State's survey guidelines?

  Protocols for Conducting Surveys at CT State

  The data produced by a survey or any assessment is only useful if the tool is carefully constructed and applied to an appropriate sampling plan. Given these requirements, Institutional Effectiveness & Planning (IE&P) suggests the following guidelines for designing and administering surveys at CT State and reporting survey results:

  • IE&P Review: All surveys should be reviewed by IE&P to ensure that the data produced by them is reliable and relevant to the research question posed. IE&P will also ensure that surveyed populations are not subject to survey fatigue produced by too numerous or redundant requests for information and will be able to provide data if it is already available.
  • Survey Request: Please send your survey request to IE&P at least one semester in advance of survey administration including but not limited to the following information:
    • Survey name/title
    • Research objective/purpose (2-3 sentences) (Note: If you’re conducting a survey to comply with the terms and conditions of a grant agreement, kindly attach the grant documents.)
    • Sampling plan (target population, sample size, selection method, etc.)
    • Frequency of survey (one-time, annual, or every semester)
    • Proposed strategies to maximize survey response and completion rates (e.g., monetary or non-monetary incentives, follow-up/reminder e-mail messages, timing of contact, etc.)
    • Survey administration start and end dates (Note: Survey administration during mid-term and final exams are strongly discouraged.)
    • Contact information of principal investigator
  • IRB Review: Research on human subjects must be approved by the CT State Institutional Review Board (IRB). (Note: Research, conducted in established or commonly accepted educational settings, that specifically involves normal educational practices that are not likely to adversely impact students’ opportunity to learn required educational content or the assessment of educators who provide instruction is exempt from IRB review pursuant to 45 Code of Federal Regulations (CFR) 46 (specifically, §46.104 Exempt research).)
  • President/CEO Approval: Surveys administered at two or more campuses must be approved by the President or his/her designee. Surveys administered at one campus only must be approved by the CEO of that campus. Additionally, the collection and use of institutional data for any external purpose (e.g., publication, conference presentation, graduate/doctoral research, etc.) must be approved by the President or his/her designee.
  • Compliance with CT State IT Policies and Data Privacy Guidelines: The principal investigator is responsible for all aspects of the survey including but not limited to the collection, transmission, storage, backup, and security of data. All investigators must adhere to the Connecticut State Colleges & Universities (CSCU) IT policies and CSCU data privacy guidelines. Specifically, investigators must use CSCU approved and licensed applications to conduct surveys at CT State.
  • Inferential Statistics: Survey samples should be demographically representative of the population as a whole unless a particular subset has been targeted. A small, more representative sample is better than a large sample size. Data produced by a targeted survey should be applied only to that specific subset and should never be generalized to the larger population. Modeling, weighting, or other adjustments may be necessary to project the results from a sample to the larger population. IE&P will assist with these adjustments. The survey plan should strive for a sample size that allows for results with a 90% or higher level of confidence. This number expresses how certain you are that the sample accurately reflects the attitudes of the total population. Determining the sample size to achieve this level is based on the total population and the margin of error. This percentage tells you how much you can expect your survey results to reflect the views from the overall population. For example, a 60% “yes” response with a margin of error of 5% means that between 55% and 65% of the general population think that the answer is “yes.” The smaller the margin of error, the more confidence you may have in your results. (Note: Please use SurveyMonkey’s sample size and margin of error calculators.)
  • Survey Reporting Standards: Please present and share survey results according to the following standards:
    • Findings and interpretations should be presented honestly and objectively with full reporting of all relevant findings.
    • Individual respondents should never be identified or identifiable in reporting survey findings. All survey results should be presented in completely anonymous summaries, such as statistical tables and charts, and statistical tabulations should be presented by broad enough categories so that individual respondents cannot be singled out.
    • Statistical tables should be clearly labeled.
    • Charts, graphs, and other visuals should be constructed to avoid misleading representations.
    • The survey method should be fully disclosed and reported in sufficient detail to permit replication by another researcher, and all data should be fully documented and made available for independent examination so that consumers of survey results have adequate basis for judging the reliability and validity of the results reported.
    • All data collected on the usage or performance of any academic unit must be shared with that unit.

  Best Practices for Designing an Effective Survey

  Carefully construct questionnaires according to the following best practices from the American Association for Public Opinion Research (AAPOR), Qualtrics, and SurveyMonkey:

  • Know what you plan to do with your information once you get it; this will help guide your questions.
  • Provide an introduction to your survey to let respondents know who is conducting it and why and how the collected data will be used.
  • Do not ask too many questions. Respondents are less likely to complete long surveys.
  • Avoid double-barreled questions. Ask one question at a time. For example, ask “Which cereal is your favorite?” instead of “Which cereal do you think is the healthiest and most delicious?”
  • Ask direct questions. Use clear, precise, and unambiguous language. For example, ask “How often do you take risks?” instead of “How often are you particularly averse to risky situations?”
  • Do not use absolute words like “every,” “always,” and “all.” Allow for more nuanced opinions.
  • Avoid leading and biased questions. Specifically, do not embed your own opinion into questions. Also, some descriptive words and phrases may interject bias into your questions or point the respondent in the direction of a particular answer. Scrutinize adjectives and adverbs in your questions. If they’re not needed, take them out. For example, ask “How often do you feel Channel 6 News’ weather forecasting is accurate?” instead of “Channel 6 News' weather forecasting is heralded by many as being the most accurate forecasting in this area. In your opinion, how often do you feel Channel 6's weather forecasting is accurate?”
  • Use close-ended questions (multiple choice, checkboxes, etc.) for data validation. Also, make certain questions mandatory so that you don't get a lot of null values (blanks). Use only 1-2 open-ended questions. Otherwise, you'll get a wide variety of responses, which will be arduous to categorize/code.
  • Avoid binary responses such as true/false and yes/no. They produce less informative data compared to response scales which cover the whole range of possible reactions to a question. Commonly used likert scales include but are not limited to: (Note: Consider omitting the neutral response option because it provides an easy out for respondents who are less inclined to express their opinion.)
    • Frequency
      • Always
      • Often
      • Sometimes
      • Rarely
      • Never
    • Level of Agreement
      • Strongly Agree
      • Agree
      • Undecided
      • Disagree
      • Strongly Disagree
    • Level of Difficulty
      • Very Easy
      • Easy
      • Neutral
      • Difficult
      • Very Difficult
    • Level of Quality
      • Very Good
      • Good
      • Fair
      • Poor
      • Very Poor
    • Level of Satisfaction
      • Very satisfied
      • Satisfied
      • Neither
      • Dissatisfied
      • Very Dissatisfied
    • Likelihood
      • Extremely Likely
      • Likely
      • Neutral
      • Unlikely
      • Extremely unlikely
  • Use an easy-to-follow question order and format (e.g., the layout of a mail survey or a web survey on a mobile device). Some visually presented self-administered questionnaires require the respondent to make navigational decisions that can affect the flow of questions.
  • Collect 8-digit Banner ID (including leading zeros, e.g., 01234567) if you’d like to join socio-demographic, academic, financial, and/or other variables from Banner to your survey data. If it’s an anonymous survey, collect demographic information to determine whether or not the data may be generalized to the identified population. Below are federal racial/ethnic categories and commonly used age groups: (Note: Researchers may use more detailed categories that reflect the demographics of their target population.)
    • Ethnicity:
      • Hispanic or Latine
      • Not Hispanic or Latine
      • I prefer not to respond.
    • Race:
      • American Indian or Alaska Native
      • Asian
      • Black or African American
      • Multiple Races
      • Native Hawaiian or Other Pacific Islander
      • White
      • Other (please specify)
      • I prefer not to respond.
    • Gender:
      • Female
      • Male
      • Non-Binary
      • I prefer not to respond.
    • Age Group:
      • Under 18 years old
      • 18-24
      • 25-34
      • 35-44
      • 45-54
      • 55-64
      • 65 or over
      • I prefer not to respond.
  • Clearly state pledges of confidentiality, which is not the same as anonymity. Confidentiality means that respondents can be identified but their identities are not revealed to anyone outside of the study. Anonymity means that there is no way (including Internet Protocol (IP) address) for anyone, including the researcher, to personally identify respondents.
  • Preview your survey and ask someone to test it.

  Contact Information

  If you are an external researcher or a CT State student or employee who wishes to conduct a survey at CT State for external purposes, please submit a CT State IRB application at CTState-IRB@ct.edu. For all other questions regarding survey administration at CT State, please contact JD Mathewson, Ph.D., Associate Vice President of Institutional Effectiveness and Planning, at jd.mathewson@ctstate.edu.

Contact Information