In a memo to department chairs and deans, President John B. Simpson announced a number of significant revisions to the university's registration and grading policies, which will take effect immediately.
The new policies, which concern course repetition, undergraduate satisfactory-unsatisfactory grading, and non-matriculated undergraduate students, were formulated by the Faculty Senate Grading Committee and passed by the Faculty Senate.
"I am pleased to endorse and promulgate the attached resolutions as university policy," Simpson said in a foreword to the memo.
The amended course repetition policy, which had previously permitted students to register in and repeat a class only once, allows a student to repeat any class an unlimited number of times. Every enrollment subsequent to the second will be permitted only with the approval of the academic unit offering the course or the student's academic advisor.
While the initial attempts and grades earned will be listed on the academic transcript with a symbol noting their having been replaced, the final repetition, if passing, will exclusively count towards students' overall GPA and credits completed.
The new policy will also allow a course with a "blank grade" to be repeated, following its being changed to ‘A' through ‘F', ‘S' or ‘U.'
With regards to the designations of the ‘satisfactory' and ‘unsatisfactory,' the grading policy amendments call for another major change. After designating a course to be graded either ‘S' or ‘U,' the original letter grade recorded by the instructor may be recovered and permanently replace the ‘S' or 'U' on the student's record. The replacement can be made at the request of the student and approval of the instructor and may not be reversed.
The amendment dictates letter grade equivalents for the ‘S' and ‘U' designations. ‘A' through ‘C' will equal an ‘S,' while ‘C-' through ‘F,' will equal a ‘U.'
The final announcement of the policy changes pertained to the limits on the number of credit hours non-matriculated students are permitted to attempt. The maximum number of credits was increased from six to eight for the six-week summer session, from 12 to 14 for the twelve-week summer session, and from 12 to 14 for the total number of summer session credits.
Following the revisions, students suspended from study at UB or another college will also be eligible for registration in summer sessions.
"A student dismissed from undergraduate study at UB or another college or university may enroll as a non-matriculated student in a UB summer session subsequent to dismissal upon consultation with a UB academic advisor," the revision read. "Students who enroll in a UB summer session while matriculated but are dismissed prior to or during the summer session in which they have enrolled shall be permitted to pursue the enrolled courses."
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