Students who change their majors could have the option to drop classes from their cumulative grade point averages if they received low grades in the courses.
Student Senate passed legislation Wednesday asking the university to implement this policy so students would not be punished for poor performance in classes they don't need after they change their majors, Tristan White, chairman of the Academic Affairs Committee, said.
The policy is known as red-lining and is practiced at many universities, including Purdue University, White said.
"A lot of students come into Ball State either undecided or with a major they thought they wanted to do but end up changing," White said. "I think [red-lining] really encourages students to find what they want to do in their life."
The legislation allows students who switch majors to drop up to 12 credit hours worth of classes for which they received grades below a C. The classes must have been required for the dropped major and cannot be core curriculum classes. Red-lining could not include classes required for minors or electives either, White said.
The classes would be taken out of the student's GPA but would remain on the transcript. If the student switches back to the original major, the dropped classes are automatically added back into the GPA. A student can only use red-lining once.
Student Senate also passed legislation asking Ball State to install surveillance cameras in the H2 parking lot, near Johnson Complex, and both stadium parking lots.
The Student Safety Committee wrote the legislation in response to the January car break-ins, Asher Lisec, chairwoman of the Student Safety Committee, said.
"It should be the priority of the university to ensure students' safety on campus," Lisec said.
The University Police Department has been looking to install cameras in campus parking lots for a long time, Lisec said.
Ben Tietz, president of SGA, will talk to the other members of the executive board before he decides to sign either piece of legislation, he said.
Tietz wants to talk to Gene Burton, director of public safety, and Jim Lowe, director of facilities assessment and engineering, about the feasibility of installing the cameras, he said.
"It's an issue I might be able to solve without going through the University Senate structure, which will be easier," Tietz said.
Both pieces of legislation will either go to University Senate or to the people in charge of making the changes if they agree to implement the recommendations, Tietz said.
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