A proposal to place students who receive a 'D' for the semester in a class on "advising alert" instead of "academic warning" will be presented to the faculty at its meeting on Thursday.The proposed change would allow students to request an "incomplete" or study abroad the semester after receiving a D on a semester grade report.

Under the current system students are placed on academic warning from the time they receive a D on their transcript until they have earned "satisfactory" grades in a later semester. Administrative staff members have called those policies "overly punitive."

Students on academic warning may not study abroad, depending on circumstances, and are ineligible to request "incompletes." In addition, the student's adviser and professors are informed of the student's removal from good academic standing and it is noted on the dean's certification for the student's application to graduate schools.

First-Year Dean Michele Rosenthal said "internal follow-up and conversation" would still take place with the student and his or her adviser and professors, but the alert status would not remove him from good academic standing, nor would it be noted on the dean's certification. Rosenthal is a member of both the Undergraduate Curriculum Committee and the Committee on Academic Standing.

The UCC approved the recommendation, which was submitted by the Committee on Academic Standing, on March 3.

Dean of Arts and SciencesAdam Jaffe who also chairs the committee wrote in an email that it has also been reviewing since the fall the policies on warning, probation and withdrawal.

"It was felt that removing a student from 'good standing' because of a single D is overly harsh and punitive," he said.

Though the UCC ratified the the committee's proposal, English professor and UCC member John Plotz said, "the proposed change has to go before the faculty...it is not final with the UCC."

The UCC oversees academic activities and regulations and is made up of seven faculty members, four staff members, four students, and Dean Jaffe. The committee is the faculty legislated committee that formally determines a student's academic standing.

Plotz thinks the proposal will be well-received. Making it easier for students to be in good academic standing "is a change that needs to be made," he said.

The proposal will be presented to the full faculty on Thursday and again at a later date, according to Rosenthal.