Updates to Academic Restriction and Academic Suspension - Spring 2024

 

From: Peanort, Marcus E
Sent: Friday, December 22, 2023 5:01 PM
Cc: Mason, Tonya R <tonya.mason@montgomerycollege.edu>; McFadden, Janee K <janee.mcfadden@montgomerycollege.edu>; Peanort, Marcus E <marcus.peanort@montgomerycollege.edu>
Subject: Updates to Academic Restriction and Academic Suspension
Importance: High

 

To:	Counseling and Advising Department Office of Records and Registration Raptor Central Raptor Central Call Center
From:	Dr. Tonya Mason, Collegewide Dean of Student Success and Rockville Student Affairs Ms. Janeé McFadden, Collegewide Dean of Student Engagement      and Takoma Park/Silver Spring Student Affairs  Mr. Marcus Peanort, Interim Collegewide Dean of Student Access      and Germantown Student Affairs
Subject:	Updates to Academic Restriction and Academic Suspension
Date:	December 22, 2023
At the recommendation of the Academic Regulations and Standards Committee, Dr. Sharon Fechter, interim senior vice president for Academic Affairs, approved changes to the Academic Restriction (AR 7.3) and Academic Suspension (AR 7.4) academic regulations.  For many, the changes should look familiar because they have simply been restored to the pre-pandemic policy. The following changes will be enforced at the end of the fall semester once student academic standing is updated, which should occur today:      Academic Restriction – Students who have accumulated at least 12 Grade Point Average (GPA) hours with a cumulative GPA below 1.75 will be placed on academic restriction. Such students will have a registration hold and must consult with a counselor for review of all course registrations. Such students are limited to enrollment in up to two college-level courses or up to six hours per semester.  The academic restriction status will be removed when the student achieves a cumulative GPA of 1.75 or higher.     Academic Suspension – Students who have accumulated at least 30 Grade Point Average (GPA) hours and whose GPA falls below 1.25 will be placed on academic suspension. Such students are prohibited from enrolling in college-level courses at Montgomery College for an entire fall or spring semester. The academic suspension status will be removed when the student achieves a cumulative GPA of 1.25 or higher. Students who return from a period of suspension will have their academic standing updated to academic restriction and will be subject to the guidelines of AR 7.3 – Academic Restriction.  Students may appeal academic suspension to the Dean of Student Affairs.    Considering this change, students will receive an email via Starfish informing them of their current academic standing for Academic Restriction and Academic Suspension, as well as for Academic Alert.  Below are samples of each notification.   In addition, the online Academic Suspension Appeal form has been reactivated to allow students the opportunity to appeal their academic suspension, after meeting with a counselor.  As noted in Image 3 – Academic Suspension Starfish Notification, students will get a referral to the online form through Starfish; refer to Image 4 – Academic Suspension Appeal Starfish Referral.

 

Image 1 – Academic Alert Starfish Notification

 

Image 2 – Academic Restriction Starfish Notification

 

Image 3 – Academic Suspension Starfish Notification

 

Image 4 – Academic Suspension Appeal Starfish Referral

 

 

 

 

Academic Standing Update from Summer I for Fall

 Academic standing updates from Summer I do not get processed until the long grade run in Banner is done in August. This means students whose standing goes from "Restriction" to "Good" after Summer I will still be prevented from registering for more than 6 credits for Fall until later on. Their standing must be manually updated so they can register before the long grade run.

Please contact your campus registrar with the M# of the student and requesting that their standing be updated accordingly. If you have any questions about academic standing, please let me know or refer to the Academic Regulations section of the PnP. 

Tue 7/25/2023 11:53 AM

Tyler, thanks for sending the email below!  This quick update is going to the Counseling Discipline, campus registrars, and Raptor Central.  The SIS Team successfully ran the long-grade run yesterday, so academic standing should be updated accordingly based on grades from summer session I courses.  Keep in mind, however, that some summer session I courses overlap into summer session II and will not be accounted for just yet in the overall GPA or academic standing, of course.  Grades for those courses will be included in the long grade run at the end of summer session II. 

 

The plan going forward is to have the long-grade run done after final grades are due for summer session I courses so students, particularly those moving from AR to AA/Good Standing do not have issues registering for more hours in the subsequent fall semester. 

 

I hope this helps us all!  Thanks SIS!

 

Marcus

Academic Restriction and Academic Suspension - Summer & Fall 2023

The temporary pause placed on Academic Restriction and Academic Suspension due to COVID remains in place through the Fall 2023 semester.  In other words, students on Academic Restriction (AR 7.3) are able to register without a hold and students on Academic Suspension (AR 7.4) are not required to sit out for summer (202340 or 202410) or fall 2023 (202420).

The restoration of 7.3 - Academic Restriction and 7.4 - Academic Suspension should start with students fall 2023 (202420) grades. Therefore, at the end of the fall 2023 semester, students on AR would have the registration hold placed on their accounts and students on AS would have to sit out for the spring semester. This proposed restoration is pending PAC approval.

For additional clarification, see current regulation attached. 

Feel free to contact me should you have any other questions.

Thanks,

Norma

Norma I. Winffel, M.Ed.

Chair, Academic Regulations and Standards

Counseling Faculty

Academic Regs Update - Re: Article 7 - Academic Standing

Last academic year the Academic Regulations and Standards Committee made recommendations to update Article 7 – Academic Standing (pg. 30).  In particular, the recommended changes were to move from “attempted hours” to “accumulated Grade Point Average (GPA) hours” in determining academic standing for Academic Alert, Academic Restriction, and Academic Suspension in particular.  The hope is that this change will help address the challenge we have had with transfer, AELP, and other students needing their academic standing reviewed and updated.  This change was approved by the President’s Executive Cabinet (PEC) over the summer and will be in place for students starting this fall.  Meaning, students enrolled in the fall and thereafter are subject to this change.  The SIS Team plans to have this updated in Banner very soon.  Please see below for the changes, which are highlighted in yellow. 

With the use of GPA Hours in determining academic standing, the Academic Regulations and Standards Committee also updated Academic Regulation (AR) 6.7 – Grade Point Averages (GPA).  In that section GPA Hours are defined as well as what goes into computing the GPA is better described.   

Lastly, the SIS Team will implement a new academic standing code in Banner – “GS” for Good Standing – to correspond with “AA” for Academic Alert, “AR” for Academic Restriction, and “AS” for Academic Suspension.  The old Good Standing code, “00”, will be repurposed for “No Standing” for use with new students. 

	Current Regulation – AY 2021-22	Previous Regulation – AY 2020-21 and before
Good Academic Standing	To remain in good academic standing, all students must maintain a minimum cumulative grade point average of 2.0.	To remain in good academic standing, all students must maintain a minimum cumulative grade point average of 2.0.
Academic Alert	A student who has accumulated at least one Grade Point Average (GPA) hour, has a cumulative grade point average below 2.0, and is not on academic restriction or suspension is on academic alert.	A student who has attempted at least one credit and has a cumulative grade point average below 2.0 and is not on academic restriction or suspension is on academic alert.
Academic Restriction	Students who have accumulated at least 12 Grade Point Average (GPA) hours with a cumulative GPA below 1.75 will be placed on academic restriction	Students who have attempted at least 12 credits with a cumulative GPA below 1.75 will be placed on academic restriction
Academic Suspension	Students who have accumulated at least 30 Grade Point Average (GPA) hours and whose GPA falls below 1.25 will be placed on academic suspension.	Students who have attempted at least 30 credits and whose GPA falls below 1.25 will be placed on academic suspension.

 

 

Important Updates about Spring 2021 - 7 week courses

• Diplomas will be available in late April.
  
  
• The short roll of grades will occur. Final grades for 7 week classes are due 3 business days after the end of the class. The grades will then roll into Banner.
  
  
• There will be a pre-req drop after the short roll. This will affect enrollment in the later 7 week classes if students failed the pre-req in the first 7 weeks.
  
  
• The long roll (where academic standing is updated) will not occur until the end of the semester in May. That means academic standing stays the same throughout the semester, even if new grades are available mid-way through.
  
  
• If a student is on restriction or suspension, please use the Starfish overload process if the student wants to take additional classes in the last 7 weeks. (See narrative below).
  
  
• Counseling is still allowed to increase total credit limit for the semester up to 21 credit hours for students in good standing. This can be helpful if a student has withdrawn from classes in the first 7 weeks. Contact Raptor Central after entering a note in SPACMNT in Banner. Raptor Central phone number is 240-567-5000.

NOTE:

The deans of student affairs met and discussed student requests for additional credits when they are on academic restriction and academic suspension status. Some students are requesting to take two classes in the first 7-week session and then two more classes in the second 7-week session. We decided that any requests for this type of credit overload should be addressed via the credit overload request form in Starfish. This will allow us to address these requests in a consistent manner collegewide. So, we ask that counselors not approve these requests but, that they direct students to the link to complete the form. As usual, we invite counselors to share with us whether they support the request and to provide any pertinent information. This helps inform our decision making.

Request for Max Hours/Academic Standing Adjustments - Without Dean Approval

Hi Katie,

Happy Friday!  As an FYI, we received some feedback about confusion of where to send requests related to max hours and changes in academic standing.  While we work on a way of coordinating these processes so that is clearer where to refer students, requests to increase max hours should be sent to Raptor Central, and changes in academic standing should go to the appropriate Campus Registrar.  Would you be willing to pass along to your team?  Let me know if you have any questions.

Thanks, and I hope you have a great long weekend!

Katie Kelpy, M.A.

Campus Registrar-Germantown and MOCCRAO Vice President

Montgomery College

Office of Records and Registration

20200 Observation Drive | SA 109

Academic Standing Errors - Link to Request Form to Fix

https://cm.maxient.com/reportingform.php?MontgomeryCollege&layout_id=14

Academic Standing Issues

To:	Montgomery College Counseling and Advising Departments
From:	Dr. Jamin Bartolomeo, Collegewide Dean of Student Access and Germantown Student Affairs Dr. Tonya Mason, Collegewide Dean of Student Success and Rockville Student Affairs Dr. Clemmie Solomon, Collegewide Dean of Student Engagement and Takoma Park/Silver Spring Student Affairs
Subject:	Academic Standing Issues
Date:	June 25, 2018
Due to the implementation of Course Program of Study (CPOS) beginning in the fall 2017 semester, Academic Standing now includes both institutional credit hours (credit and non-credit) attempted at Montgomery College and any accepted transfer credit hours.  Prior to that semester, Academic Standing was based solely on the number of attempted institutional credit hours.  It is important to note that the Academic Standing Academic Regulation has not changed, but only what is included in overall attempted credit hours.      This change has become most problematic for students whose records reflect they are on Academic Suspension and believe they must sit out for a fall or spring semester when that is not the case.  For example, consider a student who transfers in 26 credits from another institution and enrolls in 4 hours in one semester at the College.  If the student earns a grade of ‘F’ in those 4 hours, resulting in a 0.0 overall GPA, he or she would be put on Academic Suspension per Academic Regulations because he or she has 30 overall attempted hours (institutional and transfer credits) and an earned GPA of less than 1.25.  Since the student only attempted 4 hours at MC, he or she should really be on Academic Alert (attempted less than 12 hours and overall GPA below 2.0).  Developmental education courses and courses in English Language for Academic Purposes (ELAP) program can also affect Academic Standing because they count as institutional attempted hours.  Please note that this issue is not limited to Academic Suspension, as some students have also inadvertently been placed on Academic Restriction and Academic Alert statuses due to this issue.  The deans received a list of 248 students collegewide that were on Academic Suspension at the end of spring 2018 and after further review it was determined that 69 of those students needed their Academic Standing updated.  Mr. Ernest Cartledge is working to update each record for fall 2018 and our offices will inform those students of this.  In the event that you see any other students in this situation, please refer them through the Academic Suspension Appeal process in Starfish.  The deans would like to use this to track any other cases, so this can be reported Drs. Brown and Rai.  To help in expediting these requests, please put notes in Banner and/or Starfish indicating you believe the student’s Academic Standing needs to be updated.  There may also be students on Academic Restriction or Academic Alert that need their Academic Standing updated.  Please refer those students through the Request to Exceed Maximum Academic Coursework Load process in Starfish.  Again, please add notes in Banner and/or Starfish as described above.     We are working to address this issue with the College Committee on Academic Regulations and Standards and the Student Information Systems (SIS) Team.  If you have any questions about this or a specific student situation, please contact us.