Summary of Activity for the Student Academic Policies Committee, Winter 2004

 

The Student Academic Policies Committee is responsible for the submission of one proposal to the University of Dayton Academic Senate over the past semester:

 

1.      Final Examination Schedule for Evening Classes.  The proposal to revise the University’s final examination schedule is to be submitted at today’s April 23rd Academic Senate meeting.  The proposal offers a viable alternative to the current final examination schedule that would allow for evening classes to offer two-hour final exams instead of the 75-minute ones to which they are currently restricted.

 

The SAPC also considered a number of other issues throughout the semester, including:

 

1.      Student Assessment of Instruction forms.  The committee worked to determine how student assessments could best be used to improve the classroom experience.  It was agreed upon that the written comments are the only part of the current evaluation forms useful for this purpose, and hopes that future efforts to address the inadequacies of these forms will take the committee’s conclusions into consideration.

 

2.      Policy for students with three or more final exams on one day.  Language in the Student Handbook and the course composite encourages faculty to accommodate students who have three or more final exams scheduled in a single day.  The SAPC reviewed this recommendation and elected to keep it as is rather than formalizing it into a policy that requires faculty to accommodate.  In keeping with this decision, the committee will submit a proposal in the fall introducing the recommendation into the University Bulletin as a final examination guideline.

 

3.      Changes to withdrawal policy.  The committee was charged with examining the withdrawal policy to see if any changes were warranted.  Specifically, the committee was to consider the idea of moving up the withdrawal date in the interest of improving academic rigor and instituting a WP and WF that would reflect the student’s grade at the time of the drop.  The SAPC decided that no action was warranted in either case.

 

4.      Changes to evening class schedule.  The committee considered a proposal to increase the amount of time in between evening class.  Again, no action was taken on this issue.

 

Respectfully Submitted,

 

Adam Kocoloski

Chair, Student Academic Policies Committee