“The fact that it has been several years (since this policy has been under discussion) says that this is not a black-and-white issue in people’s minds,” MSU Provost Kim Wilcox said during the meeting.

Students who receive either a grade of 2.0 or above, credit or a pass in a class cannot repeat the course for credit under the current policy. Some changes discussed would allow students to retake courses regardless of their final grade.

Wilcox said there are structural and logistical issues that need to be addressed. He said there are still unanswered questions, including which courses most likely will be repeated and which students — students entering the course for the first time or students retaking it — will have priority in class scheduling.
ASMSU, MSU’s undergraduate student government, has advocated for a new policy for the past three years, Academic Assembly Chairman Justin Epstein said.

The current policy “promotes a strategy of failure,” Epstein said. Students with specific grade-point average requirements for their degree who are not getting the grades they want, but are above a 2.0, sometimes sabotage their grades so they can retake the class.

“So that’s just the unfortunate reality of the current policy,” Epstein said. “In order to prevent that, students have taken preventative measures, such as intentionally failing courses.”

ECAC members also voted to refer possible changes to regulations concerning exam proctoring to appropriate committees. The proposed changes are intended to clarify how exams for online classes are administered, among other things.

“This is becoming a major issue as more and more and more online activities come in,” ECAC Chairman John Powell said.

Wilcox said the policy changes are necessary to ensure fair assessments and eliminate confusion between students and faculty members.

“There needs to be some way of monitoring the exam experience,” Wilcox said.

ECAC also discussed the progress of a work group dedicated to creating a new sexual harassment policy in order to comply with federal standards. The work group specifically is looking to strengthen policies regarding the investigation of sexual harassment cases.

Also presented at the meeting was an update on the progress of committees working to create a university health care facility for faculty members.

Further recommendations and discussion on faculty health care will continue in January, said University Committee on Faculty Affairs Chairwoman Deborah Moriarty.

“Had we had the same kind of quality data that we have now from consultants, we’d be a lot farther than we are now,” Powell said.