Thursday, April 30, 1998 | 10:11 a.m.
A small segment of the UNLV undergraduate population that already is struggling to make the grade may find themselves struggling a little more in the fall.
The Faculty Senate Tuesday passed a resolution increasing the minimum grade point average for students who have 48 or more credits, but have not declared a major, to 2.7, or a B minus.
Until the change becomes effective, the minimum overall semester average for those students is 2.3.
"The problem is that a number of students are not prepared when they enter (the college or department of their major)," said Faculty Senate Chairman William G. Culbreth, mechanical engineering professor in the College of Engineering.
"Some do poorly the first couple of semesters."
Proponents of the higher standard say it is important for the students not merely to meet the past minimum GPA standards during their first 60 credits but to do better because the GPA requirements in colleges and departments at the university are going up.
By increasing the GPA requirements for those "at-risk" students, the students may be less likely to struggle once they enter their major.
Ann Hein, director of the Student Development Center, said 143 students have been unable to declare majors this semester because they do not meet the current minimum GPA standard of 2.3, a C minus.
The Student Development Center works with those students who have 48 or more credits but have not declared a major, and with those whose GPA is below 2.0. It counsels them and advises them on their course load and helps them set priorities so they can improve their course work.
"I felt, basically, that it is very hard to move from one GPA to another, especially from 2.0 to 2.5," said Hein, who introduced the policy change to the Faculty Senate. "The more credit they have, the longer it takes to bring up the GPA.
"We felt we needed to send a message to the students that the C's were not acceptable and that they needed to earn A's and B's to bring up their overall GPA for the semester, even if they needed to lower the number of credits they carried."
She said counselors meet with students who are doing poorly and look at their extra-curricular activities to see if they need to cut back on their school workload or on the activities that consume their time outside the classroom.
"We work with them on how to balance their schedules, to help them set their priorities, to determine their strengths and weaknesses," Hein said.
Often students are advised to repeat courses to bring up their overall GPA.
If a course is repeated, the first grade is thrown out and the second one is put in the permanent records, regardless of whether it is higher or lower than the first grade.
The university policy states that any student who has a GPA below 2.0 is on probation and has three semesters to bring it up.
If a student doesn't have the minimum requirement demanded by a college or department, the student can't declare a major in that area. Each area of study determines its own GPA standards.
Once students are notified of their low GPA score, they must bring it up to 2.3 the next semester.
"But it's just for that semester, not the overall GPA," Hein said.
Culbreth called the GPA standards a safety net, or a wake-up call.
"Sometimes when we get fairly young students they take a lot of different courses and may do poorly in some," he said.
Probation, and in some extreme cases, suspension, is an attempt to send a message to at-risk students to make some changes.
"Still," Culbreth said, "some don't get the message."
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