Undergraduate Academic Council
Meeting: UAC Meeting Thursday, Sept 25th 2008 @9:00-10:00AM -Room: Terrace
Lounge
Members Present: J. Philippe Abraham, Maria Brown, Jane Kessler, Joan Savitt (Chair),
Sue Phillips (guest), Nicholas Fahrenkopf (grad. student rep), Sue Faerman, Steven
Doellefeld (staff), Dan White, Maria Moon and Ann Withington.
Review of the minutes: The minutes of the 9/16 meeting were reviewed and approved.
Report from the Chair: There was nothing to report from the Chair.
Continuing and new business:
a)
Changes to Syllabi. The Council members discussed amending the Bulletin
statement regarding grading schemes to read as follow: “Whether the course is A-E or
S/U graded and overall method by which grades will be determined (“weights” of exams,
class participation, etc.) Instructors who do not use the full grading system defined
in the Undergraduate Bulletin must enunciate the scale that will be employed”.
Bill: that the proposed underlined addition to the requirements for a syllabus be
approved, to take effect for the spring, 2009 semester.
Rationale: Instructors establish the standards for awarding grades in the courses they
teach. Since each grade on the UA scale is assigned a value for purposes of calculating a
student's GPA, students expect that intermediate grades such as A- or D+ will be assigned
if they are merited. It is possible that not all grades will be used in a particular course
because of how the students perform. However, if it is the intention of an instructor to
never award certain grades, students must be told in advance. The purpose of such
notification is to clarify procedures for the course and to avoid the filing of grievances.
These changes were approved and voted for the members present. The Chair will forward
this to the other members who were not present so they can vote as well.
b) Appeals process for Dean’s List.
The Council discussed amending the Bulletin statement regarding the Dean’s List to read
as follow:
For students matriculating Fall 2004 and thereafter: A full time student shall be placed
on the Dean’s List for a particular semester if the following conditions are met: Within
the award semester matriculated students must have completed at Albany a minimum of
12 graduation credits in courses graded A-E, with no grade lower than a C, and with no
incomplete (I) grades. Once an incomplete (I) grade has been changed to a grade not
lower than a C, the student may file for appeal through the office of Vice Provost for
Undergraduate Education. For a student’s first matriculated semester at the University,
the student’s semester average must be 3.25 or higher; for all other students, the semester
average must a 3.5 or higher.
These same rules will apply to part-time students. All the members present voted in favor
of these changes with the knowledget that the appeals route might be changed to go
through UAC’s committee. The Vice Provost for Undergraduate Education will make a
recommendation about which office the appeal should go through. The Chair will send
this to the other committee members so they can vote via email.
c)
Time frame for degree with honors after grades changes.
Degree with Honors- the question was raised regarding the time limit to change degree
with honors if and when a grade change occurred. Currently, there is no policy to address
this issue, and it is handled on an AdHoc basis. The Registrar’s office would like to see
something codified by UAC that will guide them when this issue arises again in the
future.
Actions:
Strike IMPLEMENTATION NOTE from Undergraduate Bulletin
It was proposed that the following statement be added to the Undergraduate Bulletin
2009-2010 regarding Degree with Honors changes:
“GRADE CHANGES AFTER GRADUATION AFFECTING HONORS:
A student may appeal for graduation with honors at the end of the following term from
graduation. Appeals can be submitted through the Registrars office.”
After much discussion on this issue, the Chair offered to draft the changes and send it to
all the members via email for later discussion.
Some members asked if this issue needed to be presented to the Senate. The Chair said
she will ask it to be added as an agenda item at the next Senate Executive Committee
meeting.
d)
(d) S/U grading: concerns from UAC members who see appeals related to
this matter. This issue was briefly discussed, but it will be revisited in the next
meeting.
The meeting adjourned at 10:00AM