Requirements to walk may change

    Stricter guidelines for participation in commencement activities could be enforced for GCSU students in the future.
    The Academic Governance Committee held a meeting on Friday and discussed possible changes in determining when students get to graduate and receive their diplomas.
    According to a proposal sent to the AGC, students must complete all degree requirements before commencement or the students will not be allowed to walk. 
    The current policy states that students can walk in commencement even if they have not completed their requirements as long as those requirements are fulfilled during either the
following Maymester or during the summer. 
    “It is still speculative at this point on how exactly we (the AGC) are going to change the policy,” said Mike Gleason, chair of the Academic Governance Committee.
    A possible change is to add an ad hoc committee that would discuss such matters that are related with commencement because there currently is no policy that follows up on students who fail to complete the requirements during the subsequent summer term.  The ad hoc committee would be a subcommittee to the AGC.
    “Any proposal they (the ad hoc committee) might develop would still come through us,” said Gleason.  The ad hoc committee could also deal with students who turn in their applications to participate commencement after the deadline passes, which for the 2007 commencement was Sept. 1. Students are often given leeway by the chairs of their respective departments in turning their applications on time and there currently is no penalty for those students who turn in their applications after the deadline.
    The AGC and the ad hoc committee could decide to enforce the deadline for applications more strictly  and have students penalized for turning their applications late. 
    Jonathon Barton, SGA member of the Academic Governance Committee, hopes that if the ad hoc committee decides to penalize, those students would still be able to participate.
    “I’m venially against telling students they cannot walk with their class,” Barton said.
    Paul Thomas, vice president for institutional research and enrollment management and possible chair of this ad hoc committee, hopes that perhaps enforcing the deadline stricter will lead to a smoother application process.
    “(Our goal) is to look at what the current policy is and to determine what measures are needed in order to ensure that the students provide the information and that we (the registrar) can process the information correctly in a timely manner”,Jones said.
    If this proposal is adopted, then the changes would go effect in time for the 2008 commencement.

Posted by Colonnade Archives on Sep 15 2006. Filed under News. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0. You can leave a response or trackback to this entry