By Virginia Stallings, Leigh Riddick, Jim Girard
Last week’s staff editorial, “AU fails to communicate GPA changes,” suggested, “students needed warning of the change to avoid being caught off guard.”
We disagree with the headline’s accusation and the assumptions on which it was based. Students had opportunities to participate, provide input and were informed of the change both directly and in The Eagle’s own reporting.
From the beginning — more than two academic years ago — when the Faculty Senate’s executive committee formed a working group in summer 2010 to determine the need for changing the University’s academic regulations, the faculty solicited, were open to and responded to student comments and concerns.
The guidelines were developed with the input of a student representative appointed by the Student Government.
The Faculty Senate received detailed student feedback at two separate meetings on Feb. 3 and 16, 2011. The Eagle reported and editorialized about these developments on Feb. 14, including, “Faculty Senate mulls extensive changes to academic regulations,” and “Regulations should reflect AU’s reputation.” Additional articles appeared in summer and early fall 2011 mentioning the Provost’s review of the revised academic regulations. We applaud the reporters and editors at The Eagle for reporting on this important academic discussion and how the regulations affect students.
In May 2011, the Faculty Senate voted on the new academic regulations, which included a fall 2012 implementation date.
Following approval, in the summer and fall 2011, the Office of the Provost undertook an education and awareness campaign with students and faculty to communicate the new regulations. Student Government leaders worked with the Provost’s Office to provide additional feedback on grandfathering current students under existing policies, and to plan the series of meetings and announcements to inform students of the changes.
The outreach included a memo from Provost Scott Bass emailed to the AU community on Dec. 6, 2011, to officially announce the launch of the undergraduate academic regulations for fall 2012 and two town halls meetings. The memo, available on the provost’s website, contained a link to the new regulations, which are permanently housed on the Office for Undergraduate Studies website and also included a document with background information, highlights of changes to the regulations and the grandfather policies.
Unfortunately, The Eagle, at the time, did not report on the new academic regulations announcement. However, we note that last year’s Eagle Rants editor pointed out the location of the new academic regulations when a student asked how to find it in the Dec. 10 rants.
And finally, on March 21, 2012, the interim vice provost sent an email reminder during registration to all students about the academic regulation changes, and included the links and the documentation noted above.
Last week’s article, “New GPA system changes student grades,” was a good reminder to students about the new regulations. However, it appears to us that The Eagle needs to conduct more thorough research before making an unsubstantiated charge that AU “neglected to tell the students.”
Virginia Stallings
Interim Vice Provost for Undergraduate Studies
Leigh Riddick
Chair, Faculty Senate, Academic Year 2010-2011
Chair, Ad Hoc Committee on Academic Rules & Regulations
Jim Girard
Chair, Faculty Senate, Academic Year 2011-2012
