2.5 or say goodbye
Katherine Loeck | January 27, 2006 02:07 PM | Link
Expect a new Academic Standing Policy for Fall 2006 that will affect College of Liberal Arts and Sciences students on academic probation.
“The new policy is meant to give students a clear idea of how to be successful,” said Kim McNeley, assistant dean of liberal arts and sciences. “If in good academic standing this tells us you can successfully complete a degree. If not, we owe that feedback to you early on.”
Let’s say you are a freshman whose beer bong ate homework during your first semester away from home. Under the current policy, with two D’s and three F’s you would automatically be dismissed from KU. The new policy will require freshmen and sophomores on probation to earn a 2.0 grade point average until his or her cumulative GPA reaches 2.0. If the term GPA is below a 2.0 the student will be dismissed. Juniors and seniors will be held to a higher standard.
“Sometimes it’s a little tough to jump up to the college rigor as a freshman,” McNeley said. “For freshmen it’s definitely a little more forgiving. Juniors and seniors have less time and hopefully more skills so the expectations are higher.” “The whole idea is to benefit the students.”
Juniors and seniors on probation will be required to earn a 2.5 until reaching a cumulative GPA of 2.0. If the 2.5 term GPA is not met, the student will be dismissed.
“The fact that it’s a 2.5 requirement for juniors and seniors will make it easier for them to graduate,” said George McCleary, chairman of the Academic Standards subcommittee. “They have been here for four semesters. There is no reason in the world why they can’t meet these requirements.”
KU students don’t wish to be placed on academic probation but out of the 15,500 undergraduate CLAS students 2,500 are. Under the current policy, written in Fall 2003, students with a cumulative KU GPA below a 2.0 are placed on academic probation. With a 2.0 GPA required for graduation and good academic standing, the Academic Standards subcommittee feels that the policy needs to clearly communicate what students need to do.
The subcommittee and students agree that the current policy is too confusing. After about a year of considering changes, a new policy was made from a group effort responding to student’s comments. The new policy was approved by the Committee for Undergraduate Services and Advising in December 2005 and will now go through the College Academic Council.
The new policy will change a three tiered structure into two because it will exclude the current subject to dismissal standing. The new policy will be more straightforward because students will either be in good academic standing, on probation or dismissed.
“If a student isn’t ready to commit to academic work, it asks them to leave,” McNeley said.
McNeley also said that the new plan is about giving feedback to students about meeting the goal of graduation down the road. McCleary said that some students are so far behind that they can’t catch up in one semester. With the new policy they hope to catch students up in the beginning.
“Once the new program gets understood it will be easier for students to relate to,” said McCleary. “Students won’t have the confusion of ‘gee, what am I supposed to do this semester.’”
McCleary recommends students to talk with an advisor and develop an academic plan. He also said to work with a balanced set of courses to earn A’s and B’s to offset the occasional D or F.
“Recognize that there are 168 hours in a week and that’s a lot of time,” said McCleary. “Let’s take a little less party time Monday through Friday and a little more on the weekends.”