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How University Policies Change: Undergraduate Academic Policy Committee

Winter Campus | The Wright State Guardian


The Undergraduate Academic Policy committee makes decisions about policies regarding undergraduate academic experience. Here are some voices from the committees that play a role in this process. 

Undergraduate Academic Policy Committee

According to Dr. Geoffrey Owens, co-chair of the UAPC, the group is a subcommittee of the Faculty Senate, which is a much larger committee that makes decisions about curriculum. 

The UAPC makes decisions in consultation with the provost, Dr. Amy Thompson, and the president of the university, Dr. Sue Edwards. Owens explained that the flow of deliberation typically starts with a request from either the executive committee of the Faculty Senate or from the provost. 

“If they feel like we need to change policy regarding curriculum, what they’ll do is ask us to update, review, draft new policies that affect undergraduate academic stuff,” Owens said.

The co-chair of the committee said that these items could revolve around the kinds of classes offered, grade point average calculation information, syllabus requirements, graduation requirements or other areas of academic rework. 

Example of the committee at work

The Faculty Senate approved a revision that the UAPC provided, which matched policy 3370.1, the Fresh Start Policy, with the requirements of policy 3640.1, which covers graduating with Latin Honors. The committee and senate made the revision to the Fresh Start Policy based on the language used in the Graduating with Latin Honors policy; college credits that a student received from a different university will now factor into the graduating with honors calculation.

The Faculty Senate approved the revision to the Fresh Start Policy during a meeting held on Sept. 19, 2022. 

According to Faculty Senate President Dr. Brian Boyd, the committee put the recommendation to change the requirements in the Fresh Start Policy on the senate’s agenda in April 2022, after the committees revised the Graduating with Latin Honors policy on Feb. 2, 2020. 

Owens suggested that the change was all about timing, stating that the revised Latin Honors policy had to go through the approval process, which included Faculty Senate voting. Once the senate approved that revision, the next task was to make sure other policies matched accordingly.

“We change a major policy, and then we have to go and scan through all the other policies to see if they need to be adjusted to match the new language of the policy,” Owens said.

Staying updated about policy changes

The WSU policy index, which provides the details of all of the policies that apply to the university, is available for public viewing. 

Individuals who are interested in curriculum decisions from the Faculty Senate can attend a meeting. The next meeting is scheduled for Monday, Jan. 23, 2023, at 2:30 p.m. in the Endeavor Room of the Student Union. This is also available for attendance through WebEx. For more information about this meeting, see the senate’s agenda and schedule here.


Trey Brown

News Editor

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