“I’ve been a student, and I know you shouldn’t go around changing rules halfway through.”

Sandte Stanley, an ASMSU Academic Assembly representative, introduced a bill to examine university policies for changing syllabi after receiving several e-mails from students about professors changing attendance or grade policies.

ASMSU is MSU’s undergraduate student government.

“The syllabus is one of the most important things we have in our classes,” Stanley said.

“There are some good things that come out of the flexibility professors have to change things, but the amount of things and when they change them … that’s becoming the issue.”

Eric Hinojosa, Academic Assembly chairperson, said professors changing their method of grading and course content halfway through the semester causes student confusion.

“Some students have had problems with professors who keep changing the syllabus, and halfway through the semester they didn’t know what to expect because things had changed so often,” Hinojosa said.

“When (students) try and figure out whether they’d like to stick with a class, they really rely on the professor’s objectives and readings,” he said.

Hinojosa said he will meet with MSU Ombudsman Stan Soffin later this week to determine if creating a universitywide policy for making changes to a syllabus is possible.

Soffin said 42 students contacted the Office of the Ombudsman during the 2006-07 academic year about syllabi changes.

Hinojosa said while the Code of Teaching Responsibility in the Spartan Life Handbook outlines what information a professor should include in a course syllabus, it doesn’t set any guidelines for when and what information can be changed.

A syllabus must include course objectives, the professor’s contact information and office hours, exam dates, method of grading, attendance policy and course textbooks, according to the handbook.

June Youatt, senior associate provost, said that syllabi flexibility was a new student concern discussed by the University Committee on Academic Policy when it revised the university’s code in 2005.

“We essentially came to the understanding that there may be circumstances in a course throughout the semester that may require and even encourage changes in syllabi,” Youatt said.