Petitioning the Scholastic Committee

General Education Requirements

Students seeking an exception from the General Education degree requirements, such as Skills for the Liberal Arts or Expanding Perspectives (see UMM Catalog), should contact the Advising coordinator for assistance in preparing a petition for consideration by the Scholastic Committee.

Substitution for Intellectual Community (IC) Course

An IC course is a degree requirement that should be completed the first semester of a student's Morris academic career. Dropping or delaying the IC course is strongly discouraged. Students who drop or delay the IC course will not be able to register for an IC course later in their academic careers, because IC courses have the prerequisite—new college student in the first semester of enrollment at Morris.

Students should not withdraw from an IC course without consultation with their advisers.

IC is a general education requirement that must be met in order to graduate. If the IC requirement is not satisfied during the first semester at Morris, the student must petition the Scholastic Committee for approval to take an alternative course to satisfy the IC general education requirement prior to enrolling in the course. The student should contact the coordinator of advising who serves as a liaison between student and Scholastic Committee for the petition process.

Please note that IC courses are not repeatable. If a student successfully petitions the Scholastic Committee because of failing an IC course, the course substitution does not remove or change a grade earned in prior courses.

If an IC course substitution petition is approved, the course which meets the IC general education requirement may not be used to fulfill any other general education requirement.

Revised by Scholastic Committee April 2016

Petition for alternate IC course

Transfer Evaluation

If students have questions about transfer evaluation, they may contact the transfer specialist. If questions persist about the evaluation of transfer credits, the executive committee of the Scholastic Committee will review the transfer decisions. If necessary, a petition may be presented to the full Scholastic Committee. Contact the coordinator of Advising for assistance.

Substitutions for the Major

Students seeking a substitution in the major should contact the discipline through the appropriate division office.

Grading

The complete University Senate grading policy can be found online in the University’s Policy Library. Students may petition the Morris Scholastic Committee or another appropriate body about this policy, in relation to their transcript grades, up to one calendar year after the grade was assigned.

More Information about Transcripts

Petitioning for Exemption for the One Repeat Rule

Students are entitled to petition the Scholastic Committee for exemption from the one repeat rule as defined in the University's Grading and Transcript policy, section E.4. If a student wishes to take a course for a third time, they must meet with their advisor to thoroughly discuss other options and the impact of taking a course for a third time. To petition, complete the Academic Policy Petition form and submit it to the Office of the Registrar.

Petition Academic Policy 

Maximum Credits for Registration

The maximum number of credits per semester for which a student is allowed to enroll without approval is 20. Scholastic Committee approval is required for a student to enroll for 21 or more credits in a semester. The registrar, on behalf of the Scholastic Committee, acts on petitions from students to register for more than 20 credits.

Withdrawing for Nonacademic Reasons

Students may petition the Scholastic Committee to withdraw from a course for nonacademic reasons after day 45 until the last day of instruction. Nonacademic reasons may include a prolonged illness or other difficulties beyond the student's control. Students should use the petition form to explain the nonacademic reason(s).

Petition to Withdraw from a course(s) or from all courses for nonacademic reasons

Prior Learning Information and Procedure

What is Prior Learning Information and Procedure?

Students who have had an internship-like experience outside college that is roughly comparable to a Morris internship experience (IS 3996) may receive credit through registering for a Prior Learning internship. The prior learning is combined with faculty directed new learning, with credit awarded for both. For example, Liberal Arts for Human Services (LAHS) majors often come to Morris with years of work experience in social service settings such as in hospices, chemical dependency centers, or women’s shelters. Politically active adult students may have years of volunteer experience in grassroots organizations or in state or national volunteer organizations. Educators, business people, and naturalists may also have internship-like experiences that relate to Morris’s curriculum.

Process

The student meets with the coordinator of advising to establish qualifying prior learning and the field of the proposed project. If the learning is verified, the coordinator contacts a faculty member with expertise in the field, and the student meets with this faculty supervisor to complete the Prior Learning Internship form and to design the contract.

Because prior learning is transfer credit, the student submits to the Scholastic Committee a petition to register for a prior learning internship (IS 3896). Because the registration is interdisciplinary, the internship form must be signed by the student, the faculty supervisor, and the dean as interdisciplinary division chair. The student must note on the form how the credits will apply, e.g., to meet a discipline requirement, a general education requirement, or to count as elective credits. Before registering, the student completes additional documentation identifying the learning. If approved, the Scholastic Committee sends a packet to the dean that includes a cover memo, the signed approval form, and required documentation. After the IS 3896 form is signed, the student is allowed to register.

Documentation of the learning

Regular internships make use of daily logs and work summaries. Because this documentation is generally not available for a prior learning internship, such documentation is provided after the fact. The college requires substantial documentation of the learning, often in outline form. In general, the student reviews and categorizes the learning, excluding routine, repetitive activities. For example, a student becoming familiar with an agency’s record-keeping system would expect to count that learning experience once, whereas a student observing and conducting counseling sessions would be likely to learn through the duration of the counseling internship. Students are asked to identify and to calculate the number of hours spent in activities that contributed significantly to relevant learning. The total number of hours is divided by 48 (hours of effort per credit) to determine the appropriate number of credits.

Credits

Most of the credit is awarded after the fact for the documentation of the work experience. In a 12-credit prior learning internship, about two credits are awarded for the integration of the prior learning with theoretical studies through writing papers, presenting seminars or workshops, or other methods agreed upon by the student and the faculty member.

A maximum of 32 credits of internship may count in the 120 credits required for graduation.