Provost’s Advisory Committee on Undergraduate Programs
December 17, 2024, 3:00 – 4:30 p.m., 817 Cathedral of Learning
Minutes
Members Attending
Brian Batell (Dietrich – Natural Sciences), Betty Braxter (SON), Mary Besterfield-Sacre (SSOE), Nicole Cecchini (SEPC), Luke Condra (GSPIA), Lorraine Denman (Dietrich – Humanities), Dawn Drahnak (UPJ), William Garrison (SCI), Deborah Good (CBA), Adriana Helbig (Dietrich School – CGS), Jonathan Helm (Office of the University Registrar), Paula Janikowski (OTP – Staff), Toya Jones (SSW), Kathy Kelly (SHRS), Adam Lee (OTP – Chair), Belkys Torres (OTP), Tessa Twyman (UPJ – Student), Liann Tsoukas (Dietrich – Social Sciences), Don Ulin (UPB/UPT), Ada Youk (SPH)
Members Absent
Mercy Akanmu (Pittsburgh Campus – SGB – Student), Nicola Foote (Frederick Honors College), Martha Koehler (UPG), Matthew Miscio (UPG – Student), Camren Price (UPB/UPT – Student), Denise Schiff (Pharm), Michelle Sobolak (SOE), Kelly Wagner (DenMed)
Announcements/Discussion Points/Updates
November 19, 2024, Minutes Review/Approval
Update on PACUP Actions from Current or Academic Year (2024-2025) Adam Lee noted the proposal from the September 24th meeting from the School of Dental Medicine to establish a major in Dental Hygiene leading to the Bachelor of Science degree to be offered in a hybrid format was approved by Provost McCarthy – this is a Fall 2026 launch – will be establishing satellite locations and building out partnerships.
Academic Policy Review
Course Repeat
- Current policy
- Proposed new policy was shared with PACUP via email.
Adam noted the following:
- a basic facelift to the old course repeat policy, the things that have changed are:
- old policy talked about QPA's which have not been used for almost 20 years – this has been removed
- the procedure was deleted (procedures for all policies will likely be maintained as guidelines on a Provost web page so procedures can be easily updated without extensive approval process.)
- inclusion of withdrawals (W) as repeats
- inclusion of an academic improvement plan – so when students are repeating courses, we want to put some structure on successfully repeating a course.
- First time that a student repeats the course they should have a discussion with the instructor about how to be successful in this offering of the course.
- Second repeat they need to have something signed off by the department.
There was open discussion around the language used with the wording of repeat and attempt. Members thought that students and advisors would find it confusing, and that repeat/attempt should be clarified.
There was also discussion over including withdrawals as attempts. Adam noted that including the withdrawal as an attempt prevents students who withdrawal repeatedly just because they are doing poorly in a course. The policy sends a message that students need to take attempts at courses seriously. A student would still have an option to appeal if needed.
A member asked if appeals would happen at the department or dean level.
There was discussion with the Registrar about the possibility of automatic enforcement of the repeat policy to ensure consistent enforcement. Specifics will depend upon the final form that this policy takes.
Adam noted that if this is the case then the enforcement would likely occur at the Dean’s level and overriding it and appeals would be done at the Dean’s level as well.
A member asked what happens if a course that is to be repeated is it longer being offered how do we want to address that at all the policy? Adam noted that this is addressed by the last sentence “under extenuating circumstances you may substitute another course of similar content”.
A member asked how formalized the academic improvement plan discussion was. Adam noted there was a lot of discussion and in the end the subcommittee thought that the policy needs to offer guidance, but this would vary based upon course and student situation.
Other topics that PACUP members asked if the policy committee considered were:
- Students not being able to repeat a sequenced course after a subsequent course in the sequence has been taken
- Students repeating a course and receiving a lower grade - how do other institutions describe this? Is there language we can borrow? This should be very clear to students. “A grade earned in the repeated course will be posted to the academic record even if it is lower than the original grade and even if that means it results in a loss of credits.”
- What wording is used for something that appears on the transcript that is not a grade (example a “W” is not a grade, what is it?) Jonathan thinks it is referred to as a symbol.
- Don Ulin shared via email to Adam some rewording of the policy.