The negative results of classes blown off in freshman year may soon nearly disappear.
Executive Vice Chancellor and Provost Stuart Bell officially approved the Grade Exclusion Policy on Monday, which allows students to replace classes in which they received a grade lower than a C. The policy takes effect at the start of the fall 2013 semester.
Under the policy, students may repeat a maximum of three classes, equaling no more than 12 hours. The new grades will replace old “Ds” or “Fs,” but the low grades will continue to appear on transcripts. Students must file a petition with their college’s dean in order to invoke the policy.
“So let’s say a student gets a ‘D’ or ‘F’ in a class,” said Thomas Rodgers, Student Government director of academic affairs. “He or she can retake the class. The new grade will then replace the GPA of the previous time the student took the class.”
Special topics, independent study and research courses are excluded, according to the policy.
Rodgers authored the grade exclusion resolution and officially introduced it to the Faculty Senate during the 2011 fall semester. The Faculty Senate approved and referred the resolution to the Admissions, Standards and Honors Committee during the 2012 spring semester. In an Oct. 12 email from Vice Provost of Academic Affairs T. Gilmour Reeve to Bell, Reeve recommended the proposal be published in the 2013-14 General Catalog.
The University will not be the only institution with such a policy. Many other schools, including Mississippi State and the University of Arkansas, have similar policies.
Rodgers said the policy will be positive for the University in a few ways.
“One is that students will be able to improve their GPA by taking the class a second time,” he said. “Many of LSU’s peers already use this kind of system, so we will look more favorable. Students will be able to take a class again; it will improve their grades and that means LSU’s overall GPA could increase.”
Rodgers said the new policy will also invoke a more fair GPA comparisons to peer institution.
