The University of Delaware’s Faculty Senate replaced the term “probation” with “warning” as an identifier of a student’s academic standing, eliminated the deficit point calculation and added opportunities for students to improve their situation before facing dismissal at its March 4 meeting.

Naomi Nash, director of enrollment management strategic initiatives, spoke about the Academic Probation Working Group’s goals and findings as to why a more simplified policy benefits the University and its students. 

“It was brought to our attention that the terminology of ‘probation’ is antiquated and culturally insensitive,” she said. “We also received feedback from assistant deans and academic advisors about the confusion of calculating academic standing using the current deficit point calculation.”  

Nash shared that a survey of UD's academic advisors found that more than 78% of respondents said that the current academic probation policy is very or somewhat difficult to understand or explain to students. 

“Conversely, 96% said that the alternative policy is very easy or somewhat easy to understand and explain to students,” Nash said.

The new policy’s goals focus on student success, emphasizing student responsibility and reflection while using current resources, like UD student success coaches. The baseline of a student’s academic standing would be a cumulative 2.0 grade point average (GPA) per semester. 

“If a student is under an academic warning, the student must obtain a GPA of [at least] 2.0 during that semester. If so, they are placed back in good academic standing,” Nash said. “If not, the student will be placed on academic suspension. Upon returning to UD, the student will be required to work with an academic success coach and submit an academic success plan. If the semester does not end in a 2.0 GPA, then the student will be dismissed from the University.”

The academic warning policy was approved by a 52-2 vote and will go into effect in fall 2024. 

Also at the meeting, President Dennis Assanis spoke about the financial challenges facing UD and other universities nationwide. He and Provost Laura Carlson were scheduling a series of listening sessions with every college and other units in March.

The Consent Agenda portion of the meeting included a single vote to approve 32 undergraduate proposals and eight graduate proposals. 

On the Regular Agenda, the Faculty Senate approved the program policy statement for the MS in Applied Statistics; approved the Generative AI in Business Graduate certificate; provisionally approved two MBA programs for five years (Digital and Social Media, and Public Relations); approved a name change for the Department of Theater and Dance to Department of Theatre and Dance; and approved a new interdisciplinary Ethics certificate program. 

Kathleen McCoy, professor of computer and information sciences and co-director of the UD Artificial Intelligence Center for Excellence, gave a presentation entitled “Navigating Tomorrow: The Transformative Role of AI in Shaping Future University Operations and Education.” McCoy provided an overview of AI, how it affects higher education, why it should be embraced and what should be avoided when using AI. 

Sarah Trembanis, chair of the student and faculty honors committee, recognized the 2023 recipients of the Excellence in Mid-Career Faculty Scholarship Award (Ben Bagozzi and Megan Wenner) and Excellence in Scholarly Community Engagement Award (Amanda Jansen and Steve Metraux). 

Faculty Senate President Jim Morrison reminded the Senate that its Budget and Executive committees are in correspondence with the administration. He encouraged them to provide any feedback that they wish to be shared. Questions or concerns can be emailed to Karen Holden (krholden@udel.edu). 

Further information about the Faculty Senate, including meeting minutes and agendas, can be found on its website.