TO:Beth Dobkin, Provost
FROM:Claude Malary, Chair
Academic Senate
DATE:October 26, 2012
RE:Senate Action S-12/13-10CA
Proposed Catalog Changesfor the
3+2 Engineering Program
At the October 25, 2012 meeting of the Academic Senate, the attached Proposed Catalog Changes for the 3+2 Engineering Program were approved on the Consent Agenda. The issue had been forwarded to the Senate’s Consent Agenda from the Undergraduate Educational Policies Committee, where the issue was approved on October 8, 2012 by a vote of 8-0 with 1 abstention.
This action was assigned Senate Action # S-12/13-10CA.
cc: Br. Ronald Gallagher, President
Dean Roy Wensley
Attachment
Proposal for Catalog Changes for the 3+2 Engineering Program
Background
The current catalog language states.
Students must satisfy the following requirements
at Saint Mary's: three years of study with the
completion of 27 transferable course credits and a
cumulative grade point average of 3.0 or better.
The requirement of 3.0 was intended as a requirement for guaranteed transfer to one of
our two affiliated engineering schools, it was never intended as a graduate requirement.
At the time this catalog language was written our affiliated engineering schools
guaranteed admission to SMC students who achieved a 3.0 GPA. Recently one of our
affiliated schools decided to no longer guarantee admission to anyone and the other
affiliated school raised the minimum GPA for guaranteed admission to 3.25. In addition
the Registrar’s office has begun to interpret the requirement of 3.0 as a graduation
requirement, leading to many of our 3+2 engineering students to not receive a degree
form SMC.
Our affiliated schools have very selective admissions policies. We have had students
who began their study at a community college and want to use the 3+2 program as a
way of gaining admission to these selective schools, while doing the bulk of their work
at the community college. This seems like an abuse of the reputation of the 3+2
program, and deceptive to our partner schools. We have an informal agreement with
our affiliated schools to require a minimum of two years residency at SMC for our 3+2
students.
Proposal
We propose the following catalog language to replace the current language.
Students must satisfy the following requirements
at Saint Mary's: three years of study with the
completion of 27 transferable course credits with a
minimum of 18 completed at Saint Mary's.
Rational
We believe that the 3.0 requirement is no longer accurate as a transfer criteria, and is
unjustly applied as a graduation requirement. Thus it is best removed.
The inclusion of a residency requirement is bringing the catalog language in line with
what we have been practicing