Senate endorses policy on resignations

The senate also discussed at its April 29 meeting proposed policies on conflicts of interest and the acceptance of transfer credits for undergraduates.

The policy on administrative resignations developed by the senate's Grading Committee includes several revisions that had been suggested by senators when the resolution was first introduced at the senate's April 8 meeting.

According to the policy, students who decide to resign from a course by the middle of the semester-or up to 11 weeks for first-time freshmen and first-time transfer students-would receive a grade of "R," which would count as a course having been attempted, but not completed, for purposes of determining a student's academic standing.

Students who want to resign from a course after the deadline must seek an administrative resignation from the Office of the Vice Provost for Undergraduate Education by the end of the next semester.

The policy spells out several guidelines, or "principles," to be used by the vice provost when ruling on requests for administrative resignations, including students showing that "extraordinary circumstances," such as a lengthy illness, prevented them from completing the course, and that administrative resignations be considered only on an "all-or-none basis."

The policy also instructs the vice provost to consult with the faculty member in question when considering requests for administrative resignations and report to that faculty member when such requests are granted.

Students granted administrative resignations would receive a grade of "W," which would count as a course not having been attempted.

The all-or-nothing provision, which requires students seeking administrative resignations to withdraw from all courses taken during the semester, even those for which satisfactory grades were awarded, again prompted considerable discussion.

The provision had been debated at a March 26 meeting of the Faculty Senate Executive Committee, as well as at the April 8 senate meeting.

At those meetings, some senators felt the provision would prove a hardship for students, while others thought it would address the increasing use of administrative resignations by students-some sought as much as two years after the fact-to clean up their academic records.

Thomas Schroeder, associate professor of learning and instruction and chair of the Grading Committee, said the committee feels that the "principles" to be used by the vice provost in ruling on requests for administrative resignations do not "bind the hands of administrators" and are not too "rigid."

The committee chose to call these guidelines "principles," rather than "hard and fast rules and regulations without exceptions," to allow some flexibility, Schroeder noted.

Michael Ryan, associate dean for undergraduate education in the School of Engineering and Applied Sciences, called the all-or-nothing stipulation "overly restrictive." In his experience, students who have had serious illness or other extraordinary circumstances "are making every effort to try to salvage what they can from the semester," but sometimes it is difficult to salvage every course, he said.

The provision, Ryan said, tells students "it's too bad" if they manage to successfully complete some courses, but not all.

He proposed the senate consider a "friendly amendment" to the resolution that would strike the all-or-nothing provision. Following discussion, the senate voted down the amendment.

William Baumer, professor of philosophy and a member of the Grading Committee, stressed that the guidelines are set up "as principles" and that the committee anticipates that there may be exceptions.

"What the present wordingŠrequires is that a student (in a situation such as the one Ryan described) make a particular case for that exception and not simply come in and say 'I was ill and I want a 'W' from Course X,' but 'I want a 'W' from Course X and not my other courses becauseŠ.' and make a reasonable case," he said.

Under this policy, the vice provost does have the option of granting a "W" in these cases, Baumer added.

"We think that will get rid of a lot of nonsense of students cleaning up their records," he said.

Don Schack, professor of mathematics, agreed that the guidelines are principles, "but principles can rigidify and become precedence," he said.

"In a school where we are told that retention is a serious issue, this is something which could cause students not to want to stay here," he said.

"We need also to recognize that as the tuition gets higher, a student trying to salvage what he or she can of a semester (in the event of extraordinary circumstances) is a natural event," he said.

Charles Fourtner, professor of biological sciences, said he would support the amendment only if it was extended to all students-not just those experiencing "extraordinary circumstances"-and allowed them to resign from a course in which they had had trouble.

"You don't just do it for a particular student in a particular case," Fourtner said. "If you want to make a rule that fits those particular concerns, then change your grading procedures."

In other business, Michael Metzger, professor of modern languages and literatures and chair of the Educational Programs and Policies Committee, introduced a resolution concerning transfer credits.

The resolution would instruct that all undergraduate major programs allow accepted transfer students to apply courses that they have completed at other schools toward at least one-third, but no more than two-thirds, of the program's graduation requirements.

Baumer said he could not understand from the resolution the minimum number of credits a department would be required to accept, either for the major or the prerequisites for the major.

He posed as an example a case in which a student with an associate's degree and one three-credit philosophy course decided to major in philosophy at UB.

"That (three credits) is not one-third (of the major's requirements); there is no way we can rule that she's got one-third," Baumer said.

Metzger said the credits would not be considered as one-third of the major requirement, but rather would be considered toward the first third of the unit's requirement.

"Obviously, I'm not saying that those three credit hours shall be, or replace, one-third of the unit's requirement," he said.