At last week's Faculty Senate Executive Committee meeting, the Grading Committee proposed an Academic Standards Policy that changes the criteria for which a student may be placed on academic probation at UB.
According to the policy drawn up by the Grading Committee, which will be reviewed by the Faculty Senate this Tuesday, timely academic progress is defined as a full-time student's completion of a minimum of 24 credits per year. Currently, students are required to complete 75 percent of the credits they take each semester.
As soon as first semester students demonstrate poor academic performance, an advising check stop will be placed until improvements are made.
The FSEC also determined that students could only be placed on academic probation based on poor scholastic performance.
According to William Baumer, chairman of the Grading Committee, the new policy protects students who fail to declare a major after completing 60 credits from being threatened with academic probation.
"(The new policy) should be a lot easier for students to understand," Baumer said. "It gets rid of the nonsense of students being put on probation despite their good academic standing, simply because they do not have a major."
Ambreen Khan, a freshman pharmacy major, said the redefinition is a disadvantage to students.
"If students can, I think they should declare their major when they complete 60 credit hours," Kahn said. "Their GPA could suffer if they remain undecided and take higher level courses in a field that they are not fully prepared in. Ultimately, this could reflect badly on the university."
Iris Wangpataravanich, a junior chemistry major, said the new regulations are an improvement.
"I think the new regulations are good, because after 60 credits, students often feel pressured to choose a major," Wangpataravanich said. "Now students have more time to visit an advisor to aid them in the decision-making process."
As long as students are still permitted to remain at the university, the FSEC determined that students on academic probation should still be eligible to receive financial aid.
Although the FSEC changed some of the standards, Baumer said most students would not be affected.
"We project that the impact of students will be about the same as before," Baumer said. "However, now we have in explicit policy language what we have been doing."
"Basically, if you are on probation, you just are not doing well enough in your class work."
Photo: Meredith Forrest Kulwicki
