UNIVERSITY PARK, Pa. — The University Faculty Senate voted to approve changes to policies on students’ dropping, adding and repeating courses during its meeting Tuesday (Oct. 27), and discussed options for evaluating and choosing a health care plan.
Faculty Senate Chair Mohamad Ansari noted that planning for the 31st annual Martin Luther King Jr. Commemoration is underway. Events will include a 75 Days ‘til MLK event on Nov. 4 and day of service and evening celebration on Jan. 18.
The proposed changes to the Senate policies that cover entrance to and changes in major programs of study, dropping courses, adding courses and repeating courses were presented by the Special Senate Committee on the Implementation of LionPATH. The University is in the process of moving to LionPATH, a new student information system.
Committee Chair David Babb, describing the process for the proposed policy changes, said the committee gathers recommendations from the registrar, bursar, the faculty advisory committee on Lion Path, and the advisors Advisory Committee, before creating the legislation. It then consults with the committees on Undergraduate Education, Curricular Affairs and the Admissions, Records, Scheduling and Student Aid committee. Those three committees must give approval to the proposed changes before the reports go to the Senate Council.
In separate votes, the Senate approved:
- Removing the limit, currently 16 credits, on the number of courses an undergraduate student may late-drop. A notation is still made on the academic record of a student who late-drops a course and financial aid can be affected. Babb said that while the issue came up because of the change to LionPATH, the committee decided to study it and found that peer institutions don’t have similar policies.
- Limiting the number of times students may repeat courses to three.
- Changing the period when students may drop or add full-semester courses without academic penalty from 10 days to six calendar days. With this change, students who receive federal financial aid will not be penalized financially if they drop credits within the six-day timeframe.
The changes will now go to the Administrative Council on Undergraduate Education for implementation.
Approaches for evaluating and choosing a health care plan also were a topic of discussion, led by the Faculty Benefits committee.
The Senate also received a report on changes to Penn State benefits: http://senate.psu.edu/senators/agendas-records/october-27-2015-agenda/appendix-h/