A policy could go into effect next fall that would require professors and instructors to notify students midterm of low grades, regardless of year in school.
The undergraduate education committee passed the policy Monday, requiring midterm deficiency reports to be sent in the eighth week of classes to all students, instead of just freshmen. The proposal must be passed by the faculty council and University Senate as well to go into effect.
The current policy in place states that freshman students in 100 or 200 level courses with a C- or lower during the eighth week of the semester will have a notice sent out to themselves, their academic adviser and to their residence hall director.
Michael Spillman, vice chairperson of the Undergraduate Education committee, said the group felt the policy needed to be updated when a faculty member brought up that a number of juniors and seniors in her class had deficiencies around midterm. Spillman said the faculty member felt she needed to notify them of their deficiency as well, not just freshman and sophomores.
Darren Wheeler, vice chairperson of faculty council, said this policy is driven in part by the university’s desire for students to graduate in four years.
“The policy is designed to make sure students are doing well, staying on track and making the progress they need to,” Wheeler said.
The proposed change was originally passed by the undergraduate education committee in Fall 2013, but due to a paperwork mix-up, wasn’t sent to faculty council for review until Oct. 2. Faculty council tabled the policy and sent it back to the undergraduate education committee to make changes.
Spillman said they ended up compromising to make the policy that passed Monday night, since faculty council had concerns about the original policy sent to them.
The policy they submitted to faculty council originally called for midterm grades for all students to be sent out at the end of the ninth week, regardless of the students' status in the class.
Darren Wheeler, vice chairperson of faculty council, said people were questioning whether or not that was necessary since professors use Blackboard to keep track of grades, and students have access to their grades at any time.
“The idea is that if students want to know and are concerned about progress and how they’re doing, that they should take some responsibility for it,” Wheeler said.
Another concern brought up by faculty council and the Registrar about the proposal was if students were notified of their deficiency in the ninth week of classes, by the time the student received the deficiency notice, the withdrawal date was too soon to do much good.
“If the purpose [of midterm grades] is to make sure students know how they’re progressing; there should be time in there for students to receive a midterm grade, and still have time to talk to his or her adviser about what he or she should do about the semester,” Spillman said.
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