February 3, 2000

TO: Kurt Field

FROM: Claire Etaugh

Academic Regulations and Degree Requirements Subcommittee

The Subcommittee on Academic Regulations and Degree Requirements was asked to consider the following request from Herb Kasube on behalf of the Academic Review Board:

Bradley's policy on accepting grades of "D" from other institutions should be changed so as to accept no grades of D. Currently, Bradley's policy is somewhat complicated (at best) and often misunderstood by faculty and admissions personnel. Under current regulations, if a student transfers to BU from Institution X they may transfer in grades of "D" if all of the courses being transferred at that time average 2.0 (out of 4.0). If the student returns to Institution X at a later date (during the Summer, for example), takes one class and earns a "D" that grade will not be accepted at Bradley, even if the student's overall GPA at Institution X is 2.0 or better. Had they waited to transfer all of their courses until after this latter course was taken, the "D" would have been accepted. This seems contradictory and the Board has seen a number of such instances, the most recent at our meeting of 5 May 1999. We feel that accepting no grades of "D" would be the most consistent policy.

The Subcommittee agreed that the current policy is confusing and inconsistent. We then asked Scott Friedhoff, Associate Provost for Enrollment Management, to predict the impact of not allowing courses with grades of "D" to transfer to Bradley. He endorsed the proposed change, estimating that Bradley would lose 10 to 20 transfer students per year in the short term but that the long-term impact would likely be negligible since Bradley will be admitting fewer of these students in the future (see attached memo).

The Subcommittee recommended approval.

The proposal passed the Curriculum and Regulations Committee on December 14, 1999.