University Senate Document 05-5

                                                                                    23 January 2006

TO:                              The University Senate

FROM:                        University Senate Educational Policy Committee

SUBJECT:                 Alternative to Redlining

DISPOSITION:           University Senate for Discussion

REFERENCES:        University Regulations 2004-05, Section II, Academic Program, Part J

Introduction

At the 21 November 2005 University Senate meeting, the following amendment was added to Senate Document 05-3.

The Senate approves the Elimination of Redlining with the proviso that it will not go into effect until the Educational Policy Committee proposes a policy of student forgiveness that is adopted by the Faculty Senate. The Senate directs the Educational Policy Committee to design such a policy immediately.

As noted in Senate Document 05-3, the term “redlining” came from the practice of crossing out the deleted courses with red ink on the form that was sent to the Registrar’s Office when students completed the Change of Degree Objective (CODO) process by which they transferred from one School or College to another. The official term for this process is “index adjustment.”

Two well-articulated and deep-felt positions became obvious during discussions of index adjustment: (1) All grades should be included in the calculation of the GPA until or unless a grade was replaced by a new grade for the same course, and (2) some form of a “freshman forgiveness policy” should exist that enables students to overcome poor grades they might receive while adjusting to the University.

In the spirit of compromise, the Educational Policy Committee proposes an approach to the calculation of a student’s GPA that might satisfy those who believe that a grade should remain on a student’s record. At the same time, it might satisfy those who believe in some form of forgiveness policy. It decouples grade adjustment from the CODO process; it minimizes the number of ways in which the grade adjustment system can be abused by students; and it minimizes differences in the way in which Schools or Colleges can implement the grade adjustment policy.

As it now stands, there are two scholastic indexes — a semester index and a cumulative index. The compromise we propose is based on the creation of a third scholastic index, which will be known as the graduation index. Grade adjustments will be applied only to the graduation index, not the cumulative or semester index.

The cumulative index will be used for all external reporting functions. It is the index to be used, for example, to report athletes grades to the NCAA; to report a student’s grades to external scholarship committees; for financial aid decisions; to report on the students’ progress to the Veterans Administration; and so on. As long as the legacy system is used, which can only report one summative index, the cumulative index would be the one reported on the student’s official transcripts.

The graduation index would be used for all internal functions. Rather than trying to recalibrate the myriad places within the University where GPA indices based on our old redlining policy have been used, the graduation index (with its inherent student forgiveness policy) would be used. The graduation index would therefore be used to determine whether a student is placed on probation; whether a student is dropped from the University; whether the student would be allowed into a different program; whether a student would be allowed to move from one School or College to another; whether a student on academic drop status would be readmitted; to determine distinguished list status; and so on.

The EPC proposes that the following restrictions be placed on adjustments to the graduation index.

C         Grade adjustments can be implemented only by an authorized representative of the academic unit in which the student is registered or in which a student will be registering, in consultation with the student.

C         Grade adjustments can be applied to no more than three courses totaling no more than 12 credit hours.

C         Grade adjustments can be applied only to courses completed during the first 12 months of the student’s enrollment as a degree-seeking student.

C         There will be no difference between the way this policy applies to full-time, part-time, or transfer students.

C         Courses removed from the calculation of the graduation index must be those that cannot be used toward graduation in the curriculum in which the student is registered or the curriculum in which the student will be registering.

C         The courses must be removed within the first 24 months of the student’s enrollment as a degree-seeking student.

C         The process of grade adjustment is not reversible.

C         Courses removed from the calculation of the graduation index cannot be used to fulfill any requirements for graduation.

This proposal enables students to remove from the graduation index courses that are not required for graduation. It also allows the authorized representatives of the academic unit to remove courses that cannot be applied toward graduation.

                         PROPOSED CHANGE TO UNIVERSITY REGULATIONS 2005-06

Part 2 Academic Regulations and Procedures, Section VII Grades and Grade Reports, Subheading J. Scholastic Indexes, Academic Procedures Manual (Page O-29)

Approved:                                                                  Not Approving:

Kristine Anderson                                                     Layi Adeola

Behnam Ben Arjomandi                                           Robert Kubat

Ann Astell

Carol Baird

George Bodner, Chair

Dennis Bowling

Patrick Connolly

Scott Feld

Jim Greenan

L. Tony Hawkins

Christine Ladisch

Andrew Luescher

James D. McGlothlin

Robert Montgomery

Mark Moriarty

Hisao Nakanishi

Richard Penney

Mike Talbott

Robert Waterson