Training Cruises

Make Up Hours

What is a Make Up Hour?

Make Up hours are unique to Marine Technology here at CFCC. Since Marine Technology students take a training cruise aboard the R/V CAPE HATTERAS each semester, they will be missing a week’s worth of work in all their other courses. Cruises are a separate course that is registered into and of course students may not be counted in two courses at the same time. State regulations allow M.T. students to miss a week of school for cruise as long as the time missed is made up. To “make up” for this missed time, there is an extra hour scheduled for each of the courses in the block schedules of each Marine Technology section. These Make Up hours are designated MU on the block schedules. Make Up hours are used at a one hour per week rate until a week’s worth of hours are “made up”. Enough Make Up hours are held to cover for time lost due to cruising [e.g. a 3 hr per week class will hold 3 one hour Make Ups].

Certain cruises may extend over a weekend and into a second week with more than one week’s class time being missed. Additional state regulations allow for this and call for the students to be counted as on a field trip in their other courses. Instructors scheduled to teach M.T. sections are informed of the cruise schedule for each semester so they can know who is cruising when.

When to start holding the Make Up hour for a class is at the discretion of the individual instructor; some start at the beginning of the semester, some wait until the later weeks of the semester.

NEW Cruising Requirements

As a student participating on training cruises in the Marine Technology program at Cape Fear Community College, all students must have a licensed physician complete a physical and 9-panel drug screen. Both exams will be conducted at the student’s expense.

The physical and drug screen will be valid for the (2) two years that the student is enrolled in the program. After this time period, the student will be required to complete another physical if the training cruises are not completed and exceed the (2) two-year mark.

If a student demonstrates behavior causing concern as to alcohol or drug use they will be required to submit to an immediate drug screening at his/her expense. Failure to comply or evidence of drug or alcohol in screening test will result in immediate dismissal from the Marine Technology program.

This policy was created to insure that cruising students are “fit for duty” at sea and are not under the influence of alcohol, illegal drugs or legal drugs in which the student does not have a prescription for.

TO PARTICIPATE IN ANY TRAINING CRUISE A STUDENT MUST: