Many of you may have noticed in Chancellor Plowman’s email yesterday that some temporary changes to some academic policies to support student success were passed by Faculty Senate. The Haslam College wanted to make sure that you were aware of what changing to the S/NC grading policy meant and impacts on progression in major courses and towards graduation requirements. Here is what you need to know.

1. UTK is not adopting “Pass/Fail” grading as an option where the grade of a “D” or higher means credit and the grade of an “F” means no credit. This type of options does not exist.
2. UTK is implementing “S/NC” grading as an option for students, if they choose, where students receive credit (S) for the class if they make a “C” or better and receive no credit (NC) if a “C-“ or lower is earned.

Here is how this could impact you.

For Haslam students, especially seniors on track to graduate in May or August, this means that a “D” would get them credit in a business core class like BULW 301 or a gen ed like Musicology 120 for Arts and Humanities, but if they change to S/NC grading, that “D” would become an “NC,” and the student would not graduate.  There would be no way to change that after the fact, and the student would have to retake that requirement.

Two additional academic policies were also announced, which included:

1. Extending the deadline to drop a class with a W grade to April 22, and permanently increasing students’ lifetime limits on late drops from four to six
2. Suspending academic dismissals for all undergraduate students through the spring and summer terms

Additional information will be made available to academic advisors next week. At that point, we will be sharing more information with you. We want to make sure that you are aware of your options as we continue to move forward during this period. 

Please keep an eye on your email for more information from your academic advisor. They will be following up with more information as we continue to learn more.

We understand that this is a lot of new information for you to consider which can cause some anxiety and stress. We, the Haslam College faculty and staff, want you to be successful and have all the information you need to make the best decision for you. 

Stay tuned for more information from your advisor and the Haslam College.