EFFECTIVE 2015 FALL (Amended 7/15/2015)

This new policy takes effect with all new admits, including transfers, beginning with the 2015 Fall Semester. Students can only exclude a grade One Time. Any courses taken for the third time, cannot be excluded and will be averaged in the student’s GPA.  

Effective 2015 Spring Semester (Amended 4/27/2015), the University has changed its policy on how many courses may be excluded from the GPA calculation. 

The policy allows up to 17 hours of excluded grades and only one exclusion per course for undergraduate students. Undergraduates can repeat classes but after the 17 hours of allowable exclusion, the course grade would be averaged in the overall GPA and not excluded. Transitional courses would not count towards the 17 hours of excluded grades and students with more than 90 earned hours as of the beginning of spring 2015 will be exempt from this policy.

Effective 2015 Fall Semester

The university defines good academic standing as a cumulative institutional GPA of 2.0 or above. Student clubs, honors societies, student-athletes--in short, ALL extracurricular activities-may choose a cumulative institutional GPA higher than 2.0 for its members to qualify as being in good academic standing.

A student is considered in good academic standing to participate in University extracurricular activities for the entire academic year if the student was in good academic standing at the beginning of the fall semester of the academic year in question. Students who were not in good academic standing at the beginning of the fall semester, but who have brought their cumulative institutional GPA up to 2.0 or greater by the end of the fall semester may ask to be re-certified as in good academic standing for the remainder of the academic year in question. Students who were not certified in fall semester because their participation in extra-curricular activities began later in the academic year may ask to be certified at the time their activity begins.

Certification and re-certification will be performed by the Office of the Registrar for student-athletes and by club/organization advisors for students participating in extracurricular clubs/organizations recognized by the Office of Student Activities.

Effective with the 2014 Fall Semester, the student will be required to get his/her advisor's signature on the course drop form or the withdrawal form before the form will be processed.  This is not for an approval but will indicate the student has consulted with his/her advisor.

In an effort to ensure the student has been advised as to the effects of the dropping of a course or the withdrawing from the University, the University is requiring the signature of the student's advisor on the form before it can be processed. The signature is not approving the action but merely indicating the student has consulted his/her advisor about the effects of the action being requested. The advisor does not have the authority to prevent a student from dropping a course or withdrawing from the university.

Effective with the 2014 fall semester five-week grades for 1000, 2000 and transitional courses are no longer required. However, mid-term grades will be required for all undergraduate students. Grades to be used for mid-term grading are A, B, C, D or F. The grades of “S” and “U” will not be used for mid-term grades. This will align with our policy to have only one student initiated drop (refer to the “NEW DROP/WITHDRAW POLICY” below) after the mid-term point of semester. 

Effective with the 2014 Summer Term, THE NEW POLICY DOES NOT ALLOW A COURSE TO BE DROPPED OR A STUDENT TO WITHDRAW AFTER THE DATE FOR DROPPING WITH AN AUTOMATIC “Q” (see the academic calendar for the specific date of the semester/term). This policy includes student initiated drops and drops for non-attendance by faculty.

Note: The deadline for drops for non-attendance had already been moved to the deadline for dropping with an “auto Q”.

Under the current policy of allowing a course to be dropped after the “auto Q” date, the University could become non-compliant with the Texas Education Code 51.907 that limits the student to 6-drops during his/her undergraduate career (without receiving an academic penalty). After the “auto Q” date, a student would receive the grade at the time he/she dropped the course. This resulted in an academic penalty, as well as, the use of one of his/her 6-drops allowed. This would penalize the student twice and be in violation of the Code. Therefore, the University has implemented, beginning with the 2014 Summer Term, no more drops or withdraws after the “auto Q” date.