Academic Standards Policy

The following attitudes are important for success in the academic programs of the University:

  • A willingness to go beyond the minimum required in an assigned task, and dissatisfaction with superficial work.
  • Intellectual curiosity, integrity and responsibility. In university studies, the students are expected to contribute as well as to receive, to cooperate fully with what is asked of them in courses, and to take an interested and active part. Instructors are expected to make clear the specific demands and procedures of their courses.
  • A critical spirit that recognizes the relationship among the different fields of knowledge and their relevance to the needs and problems of our time.

Students are expected to maintain an academic record that will qualify them for graduation.

Credit Load: A full load is considered to be from 12 to 16.5 credits. A load of 15.5 credits ordinarily is
sufficient to complete the associate degree in two years and the baccalaureate degree in four.

After mid-semester and in unusual circumstances, such as extended illness, the Provost may give a student special permission for a late withdrawal.

Students are required to provide documentary evidence in support of requests for administrative withdrawal. Applications will not be accepted after the last day of instruction within a semester.

The policy for withdrawing from courses which are given outside of the normal academic calendar sequence is as follows:

  1. The last day to withdraw from a course will be at the conclusion of 40 percent of the total instructional period, or at the end of three weeks for an eight-week course and two weeks for a six-week course.
  2. The last day to withdraw from a course without special permission from the Provost will be at the conclusion of 50 percent of the instructional period, or at the end of four weeks for an eight-week course and three weeks for a six-week course.
  3. Students who withdraw between the end of the third or fourth weeks of an eight-week course, or between the end of the second and third weeks of a six-week course will receive either a WP or WF.
  4. Students seeking to withdraw after 50 percent of the instructional period can do so only by means of an administrative withdrawal.