Spring Break
College will offer academic amnesty
Starting Fall, students with poor past semesters can apply for improved GPA
Addie Shrodes
Issue date: 4/27/09 Section: WCC News
Maybe a student had an overwhelming job, a medical distraction, was in the wrong program, or just didn't grasp the importance of the grade point average (GPA).
Starting Fall 2009, if Washtenaw Community College students had one or two poor semesters three years back but then illustrated academic improvement, they can apply to have those early classes academically forgiven by procedure.
"That means no courses or grades are ever removed from the transcript, but it's noted that those courses that are academically forgiven have been academically forgiven, and the grades received from those courses are no longer accumulated to the GPA," Linda Blakey, associate vice president of Student Services, said of the academic forgiveness procedure.
The procedure was developed because most schools, both two-year and four-year, have some sort of academic forgiveness procedure, and, for a while now, numerous students applying for transfer were told to use WCC's procedure to raise their GPA to acceptance level.
"Well, we have not had a procedure in the past for students to use, so that is what we are trying to address," Blakey said.
The procedure was also developed with WCC graduation requirements in mind.
"Let's say someone got off to a bad start and then switched programs," said Registrar Larry Aeilts, who drafted the procedure. "They didn't do so well on their first program and now those grades are creating a problem in trying to graduate from the second program. We are trying to offer students some relief for that as well."
The procedure's format was drawn from examples of other Michigan community colleges and from the student situations handled by Aeilts in Registrar Services. Aeilts wanted to make the procedure as flexible as possible.
The Curriculum Committee and the deans then reviewed the procedure, and it was taken to a department chair meeting and a general faculty meeting. In addition, Vice President of Instruction Roger Palay and Blakey have
Starting Fall 2009, if Washtenaw Community College students had one or two poor semesters three years back but then illustrated academic improvement, they can apply to have those early classes academically forgiven by procedure.
"That means no courses or grades are ever removed from the transcript, but it's noted that those courses that are academically forgiven have been academically forgiven, and the grades received from those courses are no longer accumulated to the GPA," Linda Blakey, associate vice president of Student Services, said of the academic forgiveness procedure.
The procedure was developed because most schools, both two-year and four-year, have some sort of academic forgiveness procedure, and, for a while now, numerous students applying for transfer were told to use WCC's procedure to raise their GPA to acceptance level.
"Well, we have not had a procedure in the past for students to use, so that is what we are trying to address," Blakey said.
The procedure was also developed with WCC graduation requirements in mind.
"Let's say someone got off to a bad start and then switched programs," said Registrar Larry Aeilts, who drafted the procedure. "They didn't do so well on their first program and now those grades are creating a problem in trying to graduate from the second program. We are trying to offer students some relief for that as well."
The procedure's format was drawn from examples of other Michigan community colleges and from the student situations handled by Aeilts in Registrar Services. Aeilts wanted to make the procedure as flexible as possible.
The Curriculum Committee and the deans then reviewed the procedure, and it was taken to a department chair meeting and a general faculty meeting. In addition, Vice President of Instruction Roger Palay and Blakey have
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