Monday night’s resolution-filled Faculty Senate meeting passed one edict that could save seniors both time and money, pending Executive Vice President and Provost Pam Benoit’s signature.
Faculty Senate unanimously voted to move forward in adjusting the minimum required hours of undergraduates for graduating this summer.
Senate had only planned to discuss the resolution as a first reading at Monday’s meeting. But Ann Paulins, human and consumer science education senator, who said many of her students will be starting jobs in June and July, made the motion to suspend the rules and go straight to a vote.
“If we get it decided now, we can actually tell our students what they need to plan to do (for graduation),” she said.
Under quarters, OU students are required to earn a minimum of 192 credit hours to graduate with a bachelor’s degree.
Meanwhile, under semesters, students will be required to earn a minimum of 120 credit hours for a bachelor’s degree, the equivalent of 180 credit hours on the quarter system.
The resolution would allow students graduating in the summer with only 180 credit hours to receive their diploma on time rather than having to wait for the semester switch to legitimize the credit total, as long as degree requirements are met.
Students graduating with associates degrees face a similar challenge, with 96 credit hours required now under quarters and 60 required under semesters, which translates to 90 quarter hours. The resolution would also allow those students graduating this summer to waive the additional 6 credit hours required under quarters.
The resolution passed reads that all students who have completed graduation requirements this academic year will be allowed to submit, with their graduation application, a petition for an exception to the university graduation requirement. This would allow them to waive up to 12 quarter hours for a bachelor’s degree and up to six quarter hours for an associate degree.
The discrepancy in credit hour totals would require students to wait until December 2012 to receive their degree — the first commencement under semesters — rather than August.
“There is a fundamental unfairness here,” said Allyn Reilly, Educational Policy and Student Affairs Committee chair.
Several members of Faculty Senate brought up concerns about students not being able to search for jobs if their diplomas are delayed. Although Reilly said the idea was originally discussed about a year ago, the decision was made to delay the resolution to prevent a rush of students trying to complete graduation requirements early.
“It is at a point where students are registering for Spring Quarter, and we don’t think there will be a significant impact on tuition income,” Reilly said.
af234909@ohiou.edu
Editor's note: This article was updated to describe students graduating this summer, rather than this spring.
