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Regulations & Policies

Academic Affairs

I. OBJECTIVE & PURPOSE

This policy establishes the process that will be used in establishing additional program admission criteria for entry into a major and procedures to enable students to complete prerequisites.

II. STATEMENT OF POLICY

º£½ÇÉçÇøis committed to providing students access to a full range of academic programs. Under certain circumstances, however - whether as a result of constrained resources or particular patterns of likely student attrition - it is necessary to have in place a selective admissions process for a limited number of undergraduate majors.

Selective admission enables programs to require the completion of some or all program prerequisite courses, with minimum acceptable grades for each course, as additional admission criterion. All applicants completing the program prerequisite(s), with any specified grade requirement, will be admitted to the program.

III. STATEMENT OF PROCEDURES

Obtaining Selective Admission Approval

In order to obtain the approval of Academic Affairs for requiring selective admission standards for entry into an undergraduate major, a program seeking to implement such standards must present its rationale for doing so in a comprehensive proposal which articulates compelling reasons to designate a program as selective. In the context of the proposal, the program minimally must address the following issues:

1. the projected impact of the proposed standards on program enrollment including the impact on diversity, gender balance, upper and lower level FTE, and headcount;
2. the impact of the proposed standards on student retention from junior to senior status and on the rate of progress toward graduation;
3. the current and proposed student/faculty ratios that would result from higher than normal standards;
4. the implications of projected enrollments on the program's current and anticipated human and physical resources;
5. the relevance of admissions standards to program accreditation (if applicable);
6. the methods for ongoing monitoring of the impact of admissions standards on program quality and effectiveness.

The data used for addressing items 1, 2, 3 must be obtained from Institutional Research. Institutional Research will need to know (a) which program is being proposed for selective admission, (b) which prerequisite course(s) are to be included, and (c) the minimum acceptable grade for each course [Note: GPAs are not permissible]. Institutional Research will prepare a written analysis including narrative and graphs for each of the items. The submitted proposal must include the Institutional Research written analysis as an appendix.

Completion of Prerequisites

Applicants will be referred to the department to determine admissibility. Students who have not completed prerequisite courses may be provisionally admitted to the program.

Provisional Admission Process

• During the referral process, the department may notify Admissions to provisionally admit a student who has not successfully completed the prerequisite(s) required for admission.
• Students may remain in a provisional admission status for no more than three consecutive semesters.
• Provisionally admitted students must be advised by the department and/or academic advising as to which courses must be completed in order to be fully admitted to the program within three consecutive semesters.
• Students must enroll in as many prerequisite courses as possible each semester.
• Departments are responsible for assuring that students are progressing toward full admission.
• Upon successful completion of the prerequisite(s), the department will notify Admissions to fully admit the provisionally admitted student.

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