The status of the new W policy is unclear to Student Government members and University Provost Astrid Merget.
Merget told SG members Monday she did not know the exact position of the new W policy, said Jonathan Walker, SG director of academics.
The Faculty Senate approved a revised version of the W policy last semester, said Faculty Senate President Kevin Cope.
Meghan Hanna, former chairwoman of the SG Athletics, Academics and Administration Committee, presented the plan to the Faculty Senate during the spring semester. Hanna said she was approached by various members of the Office of Academic Affairs who expressed their approval of the plan.
The new policy will change the number of W’s allotted to each year classification from the current policy based on hour classification, Hanna said.
SG Vice President Martina Scheuermann said Merget told SG members she knew the bill had passed through the Faculty Senate Committee on Admissions, Standards and Honors, but didn’t know the current status of the bill.
The new plan went to Academic Affairs for approval after receiving the Faculty Senate’s endorsement, Hanna and Cope said.
Cope said the senate approved the plan with significant lead time because of challenges with implementation and University officials needed to have the changes printed in the University’s general catalog.
Cope said he supposes it will be approved by Academic Affairs and be implemented sometime in 2010.
“It’s going to happen,” Hanna said. “It’s just a matter of time until it is implemented.”
The University’s current W policy was implemented in 2006. It permits three W’s for students’ first 29 hours and one W for each hour tier beyond that. The second hour tier ends at 59 hours, the third ends at 91 hours and the fourth ends at 119 hours. Anything above 119 hours is considered the fifth tier.
The new policy is designed to give students more flexibility with their W’s while keeping students from abusing the policy, Hanna said.
The plan would allow students to have three W’s to use during their freshman and sophomore years. Students would then have two W’s during their junior and senior years and then receive one additional W for each extra year they need to graduate.
SG Assistant Director Krista Allen also spoke with Merget regarding the University’s deadweek policy.
Allen said deadweek policy has been a problem in past semesters because everyone is not completely informed of the policy.
“The problem is we have a policy in effect, but it is not being enforced,” said SG President Stuart Watkins.
Allen said Merget will send an e-mail in the future to the individual University departments to inform everyone of what assignments professors can assign and the restrictions involved with deadweek.
Watkins also announced SG is working on a system for students to appeal what they see as violations of the deadweek policy.–Contact Xerxes A. Wilson at [email protected]