UpDate - Vol. 16, No. 13
December 5, 1996
Faculty Senate revises UD academic dismissal policy

     The University Faculty Senate Monday revised the policy on
academic dismissal by removing a seldom-used provision from the
Undergraduate Catalog.
     Prior to senate action, the University's dismissal policy
allowed students to be placed on probation when their quality
point deficit became more than 12.99 and their grade index for
any one semester dropped below 1.25.
     Robert Taggart, chairperson of the Committee on
Undergraduate Studies that introduced the change, argued that
many students have one bad semester, and Margaret Andersen, vice
provost for academic affairs, said that the University had not
dropped any student with a one semester grade average of 1.25 for
a long time.
     As amended, students may be placed on academic probation
when their cumulative grade point index is below 2.0 and their
quality point deficit is 12.99 or less. Undergraduates may be
dismissed for academic deficiency if their quality point deficit
becomes more than 12.99.
     In other business, the senate extended the provisional
status of the Ph.D. in art conservation research for an
additional year. By extending the issue of permanent status to
the fall of 1997, several doctoral dissertations in the field can
be completed.
     After some discussion, a Sense of the Senate resolution
urging that a national search for minority candidates for the two
new dean positions was returned to the Committee on Diversity and
Affirmative Action. Faculty from the  newly merging colleges
argued that halting the ongoing internal search for deans would
cause "a leadership gap" and would hamper recruitment of new
faculty.
                                                   -Cornelia Weil