Students petitioning grade changes offered new procedure
Utah State University has developed a new procedure this semester for students petitioning a grade change for a prior term.
The new procedure was implemented in an effort to streamline the process for academic records, adjustment and increase student accountability, said Heidi Beck of the Registrar’s office.
In the past, any students wishing to adjust their academic transcripts could go to their advisor for the necessary paperwork. Then after getting a signature from the dean of their college they would submit the request to the Registrar’s office, Beck said.
The new procedure requires students to go to the Registrars office first to pick up the form for records adjustment, rather than going to their advisor. Beck said students have to complete only a portion of the form, but must provide a typed statement justifying their petition for the adjustment and any documentation supports their request.
Another change meant to make the new procedure more efficient is students are no longer required to take the form around to get the necessary signatures. Students only have to complete their part of the form, turn it in and let the Registrar’s office take care of obtaining the appropriate signatures for approval.
The processing fee for academic records adjustment was also raised from $5 to $10.
The process to adjust transcripts is supposed to be used by students who have received poor grades in classes they were not capable of attending.
“In theory, this should only have to happen in rare cases when [the] student wasn’t able to drop their classes for some reason,” Beck said, using the example of students who were in car accidents and were physically unable to attend classes or go through the process to drop them.
But many students without valid excuses were attempting to adjust their academic records, Beck said.
“There was a lot of abuse of the system going on,” said Beck.
The precious policy caused problems because petitions that should have been denied were often approved because the deans weren’t supplied with proper information to determine the legitimacy of a student’s request, Beck said.