Regents approve academic policy changes

TOM PINNEY/DAILY FORUM
Northwest Missouri State University Pi Omega Pi sponsor Nancy Zeliff and senior Pi Omega Pi team member Marina Hayner were recognized during the Northwest Board of Regents meeting on Monday. The team won the 2016 National Pi Omega Pi Championship, bringing the number of Northwest academic national wins to 11 for the current academic year. Pi Omega Pi is a scholastic honor society recognizing achievement among business education students.

Northwest Missouri State University is amending several longtime academic policies.

During Monday’s Board of Regents meeting, outgoing provost Timothy Mottet recommended three major changes.

The first transforms the academic honesty policy into a code of academic integrity. Mottet said the current policy is limiting and does not take into account the intent behind plagiarism and other misdeeds.

“The policy doesn’t allow faculty to assess what caused the academic dishonesty to occur,” Mottet said.

“Sometimes students make a mistake. The new code allows for professors to assess why the academic dishonesty happened and how, and has a latitude of punishments based on intent. It is more equitable and more in the spirit of education itself rather than punitive.”

Specifically the code creates a range of sanctions that can include everything from repeating an assignment to flunking the course. It also establishes an Academic Integrity Panel and a new Faculty Senate committee.

The code replaces a part of the policy that states students will be dismissed following a second offense with provisions for a student and faculty review by the Academic Integrity Panel.

The panel would be empowered to impose sanctions that include dismissal but also embrace academic suspension.

A second change offers a new academic forgiveness policy. Mottet said this would be a one-time mercy rule for students who have a bad semester.

“There are a number of reasons why a student would need to utilize this option,” Mottet said. “For example, a student may have chosen a major that is not well-suited for them, and finds they are not able to successfully move through critical coursework.

“The student may find a major that is suited to their ability but continues to be weighed down by courses they no longer need to take.”

Mottet said a number of other universities have similar policies, including the University of Nebraska-Lincoln and the University of Missouri-Columbia.

The policy allows students to have grades of “C,” “D” and “F” removed from their overall GPAs after they have re-established a 2.0 GPA or higher over 12 credit hours.

The policy has several caveats, such as not applying to courses in which a student has committed academic dishonesty. Additionally, only grades earned at Northwest will eligible for forgiveness.

A third change amends the full-time designation for graduate students.

Mottet said universities use full-time requirements mandated by accreditation agencies for undergraduate students, but that full-time status for graduate students is left up to the school’s discretion.

Due to the increasing prevalence of on-line courses, Mottet suggested that Northwest lower its full-time graduate student credit requirement from nine hours per term to six hours.

“Lots of graduate programs are going to online formats,” Mottet said. “In online programs, learning takes longer than in face-to-face classes because students are responsible for most of the work in learning the material.

“Lowering the requirement would drop the course load from three courses to two per semester. This is another trend with higher education.”

The change would also lower the full-time standard for financial aid for graduate students.

All three policy changes were approved by the board.

Other issues before the regents this week are listed below:

· President John Jasinski noted that Northwest had won 13 national championships during the current academic year: two athletic and 11 academic.

On hand to be recognized for their recent accomplishments in academic competitions were members of the Pi Omega Pi business education honor society chapter and the Northwest Speaking Bearcats.

· The board approved several per-credit-hour fee changes for the 2017-2018 academic year previously ratified by the Student Senate. Changes include a $2 increase in the technology fee, a $3.65 increase in the recreation fee and a new co-curricular activity fee of 50 cents.

The also board approved the purchase of 6,000 new laptop computers in addition to the upgrade of 350 hard drives as part of Northwest’s three-year student computer replacement cycle. Total cost of the measure, funded by the technology fee, is $4.8 million.

· Jasinski said the university is on track to break its record for single-year giving in support of the institution sometime in the third quarter of 2017.

The regents next meet at 1 p.m. Friday, June 23.