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Students at Risk Academically

What to Expect Within Your School or College When New Students Are At Risk

At the beginning of the quarter, the Director of Student Academic Services will send a list of students new the prior quarter, who have earned less than a 2.5 gpa to Professional Advisors in each school or college. Professional Advisors will email and phone students who earned less than a 1.0, to have them come in to access reasons for their low academic performance. Professional Advisors may also follow this procedure with students who earned more than a 1.0, but performed poorly enough to be placed on probation. Advising "holds" will be place on these students blocking access to registration until they have met with with the professional advisor or associate dean (as determined by school). Professional Advisors will coordinate their approach to these students with their assigned academic advisors and current faculty as appropriate. Second quarter performance of these students will be tracked and intervention will occur in the same manner if performance remains low.

What You Can Do As An Advisor

You may question how much responsibility to take in student problem solving. Involve yourself to the degree you are comfortable -- based on how well you have become acquainted, your mutual expectations, and the parameters of your role as academic advisor.

Monitor academic progress at the beginning of the quarter

You can review academic progress at the beginning of the quarter to identify students who are struggling. View advisee grades on SU Online. Know the gpa requirements for good academic standing in your program. In addition to students who fall significantly short of good standing and are likely to be on probation, make note too of students whose grades are uncharacteristically below their usual performance or have failed a single course. Performance at this level, which clearly indicates problems, but that does not alert the university, will very likely only be noticed by you. For some students, meeting with you may be their only opportunity to get the timely support they need to face the academic challenges contributing to their poor performance.

Steps for advising students who are struggling or on academic probation

1. Within the first week of classes review current course schedule and make changes if needed Make sure you know what classes your advisee has registered for in the new quarter. Be sure the student is not registered for more than 15 credits. Has the student failed or performed poorly in a course? Most required courses should be repeated in the coming quarter. Students who are concerned about falling behind will occasionally register for the next course in a sequence without having performed well enough in an earlier course within the sequence. Check that courses are taken in their appropriate sequence and that pre-requisites and basic subjects are completed. Schedule course combinations that might ease the pressure. When possible, schedule classes with the goal in mind of getting the highest grades possible to raise the GPA.

2. Review and explain academic probation Explain expectations and consequences using the Registrar policy pages as a reference and show the student where to find this information. Students placed on academic probation have been alerted that they have failed to meet minimum academic standards and that they must begin to improve the quality of their work NOW in order to avoid being dropped by the university.

3. Discuss strategies for improvement No matter how the discussion evolves, students should be encouraged to talk about their sense of what the difficulties are and what steps they are taking to improve their performance. Support students in evaluating their situation honestly and making their own decisions. Following are common academic factors to explore with the student that may have contributed to failure:

Difficult classes/not prepared for course level
Registered for too many classes
Unable to understand professor/conflict with prof
Lack of utilizing professors' office hours
Unable to understand course content/relevance
Overall schedule too rigorous (school, athletics, work, etc.)
Ineffective study skills
Did not attend/skipped class
Over-involved with extra-curricular activities
Working too much
Undeveloped time management skills
Unprepared for exams
Difficulty with early classes
Possible learning disability

4. Revisit choice of major If the courses that caused a student problems was a course in their major area, this is the revisit their academic goals. Doing poorly in an entry-level major course may indicate the need to explore other options. Encourage students to speak to faculty in other majors or arrange a visit to speak to an advisor in the Premajor Studies program. Students should also be encouraged to visit Career Services and arrange to take self assessment testing to help determine the direction they want to head in.

5. Initiate referrals where additional support is indicated and follow up. Make student referrals to appropriate support resources using the Student Action/Referral Form. Check in with the student a couple of weeks into the quarter to see how he/she is doing, keeping in mind the last day to withdraw from a class.

Probation at Seattle University

Academic Probation, Dismissal and Appeal Policy and Procedures for Undergraduate Students

New Terminology for Probation

There is no longer a designated status of "continued" or "final" probation. A student goes on record as being on probation for the quarter in which he or she has difficulty, but probation applies to the following quarter. The student has a minimum of 2 quarters on probation (under current policy), following the quarter of difficulty, before being dismissable. Notification letters to the student will differentiate between ongoing and last (final) quarter before dismissal.

SU policy introduction

Information on academic probation and dismissal for academic deficiencies, and on the grade point average required for graduation in each major, is set forth in the Undergraduate Bulletin of Information. In addition, handbooks of the schools, colleges, or programs of the University may include more specific standards, requirements and implementation practices for the individual programs or majors.

Students will be placed on probation if their cumulative grade point average falls below the minimum required by their degree program. Probation may be continued for a second quarter if the cumulative grade point average continues below the standard of the particular school or college. Students who have two quarters of poor scholarship may be subject to dismissal. Students dismissed for academic reasons may request reconsideration through the appropriate dean in accordance with the policy of the individual school. Be sure to familiarize yourself with the conditions of probation for your school or college.

Formal actions

All ungraduate students who is placed on academic probation will have a hold placed on his or her registration.
A student placed on academic probation may be required to do any one or more of the following:

Meet with the dean to discuss conditions for continued enrollment and fulfill the conditions identified by the dean
Meet with an advisor to develop an academic improvement plan and complete the steps outlined in the plan
Earn no grades lower than a "C" while on probation
Obtain permission from the dean before taking incompletes or withdrawals
Limit the number of credits taken while on probation
Participate in a workshop, course, tutorial, or other academic initiative aimed at improving study approaches
Meet with other stipulated requirements at the discretion of the dean.

Additional Policies Related to Academic Performance

Credit Load Maximum
Students may take up to 18 credits per quarter, including audited courses. The academic overload policy is designed to allow highly capable students to broaden their education by taking courses outside of their program requirements. Students who have sophomore standing or above, have attended Seattle University at least one quarter, and have earned a cumulative GPA, including audited courses, of at least 3.50 at Seattle University may take up to 20 credits per quarter. Refer to the Tuition and Fees section for information on costs. Students on academic probation may be required by the dean of their school to carry less than the normal credit load.

Grade Point Average Requirements - Transfer
Seattle University requires that students maintain a C average, which is equivalent to a cumulative 2.00 GPA on a 4.00 scale. Requirements of professional schools may be higher and individual majors and programs may also have higher grade point requirements. The grade point average is computed by dividing the total number of quality points achieved by the total number of credit hours attempted in which the student earns a letter grade of A through F. Undergraduate students’ major grade point average includes all Seattle University credits used to complete course and credit requirements of the major department as well as the supporting courses in allied fields specifically required by the department. This includes courses in the major program that also satisfy a core requirement.

Repeated Courses
If an undergraduate student receives a grade of C- or below in a course at Seattle University, they may repeat that course. Some schools, major departments and professional programs have other specific regulations regarding the repeating of a course. When a course graded C- or below is repeated at Seattle University, the most recent grade will be posted to the permanent record and will be used in computing the cumulative GPA. The original grade will remain on the record but course credits will be counted only once toward a degree.