In light of the new grading scale, colleges and departments are reviewing their requirements to decide whether a C- counts toward the major.
The day following the Faculty Senate’s approval of the scale, Todd Diacon, vice provost for academic affairs, asked the deans, directors and department heads at UT whether they would accept a C- to count toward their respective majors. Currently, every college except for the College of Engineering, the College of Communication and Information, and the College of Agricultural Sciences and Natural Resources requires a C in a class for that course to count toward the major, according to Diacon. Agricultural Sciences and Natural Resources and Communication and Information currently allow grades lower than a C to count toward the major, and for Engineering, it is a departmental decision, Diacon said.
Diacon said the choices vary among other universities with plus and minus grades.
“Many do (accept the C- in the major), many do not,” Diacon said. “Many make it a college-by-college decision. At (the University of) Georgia, for example, by far the largest college, arts and sciences, does not accept C- grades in the major. Other, smaller colleges at UGA do.”
Dean of Arts and Sciences Bruce Bursten added that while some colleges may accept C- grades for credit in a major, for now, Arts and Sciences is keeping the same requirements it used under the old grading system.
“When I was at Ohio State, students in chemistry were required to maintain a 2.0 GPA overall and get a C or better in all courses required for the major,” Bursten said. “I don’t know whether that was the same requirement for all students in A&S — I don’t have detailed knowledge of what is done at other colleges of arts and sciences, but it is my impression that the 2.0 cumulative GPA requirement is a pretty common one.”
Yet, the agricultural sciences and communications colleges, both which accept a C- in courses in a major, still require a 2.0 cumulative grade point average for every student major, a cumulative C on the new grading scale.
“Departments and colleges at other universities that accept C- grades in the major require both a cumulative GPA of 2.0 in the major and overall to graduate,” Diacon said.
Diacon has left the decision about whether to change major requirements up to each individual college, and Bursten said the individual arts and sciences departments will discuss any changes with each department head.
“I think it is most likely that we will have uniform standards for the entire college,” Bursten said.
According to Diacon, any changes each college or department wants to make to the catalog in order to reflect new requirements for progressing through a major must be made through the curriculum-change process.
“The curriculum change process involves proposing changes to college and university curriculum committees, having those committees and the Undergraduate Council vote on the proposed changes, and then having the full Faculty Senate ratify those votes,” Diacon said.
But it’s already too late for colleges to adapt the 2008-09 catalog, he said, so they will have to use a blanket petition, which would include the changes for next year, and add the changes to the catalog the following year.
Diacon predicted that all proposed changes to major requirements will be settled by May 2008.
