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Fort Lewis College Official Seal

Policy identification number: To come...

File: Academic Policies / Curriculum Policies

Course Scheduling - Summer

Policy Summary

Fort Lewis College schedules courses in full terms and standardized parts of term to minimize time conflicts for students and ensure compliance with federal credit hour and financial aid disbursement regulations.

Policy Owner

Provost and Vice President for Academic Affairs

Approval Date

April 26, 2017

Effective Date

2016-2017 Academic Year


Search Terms

c, pvpaa, course, scheduling

Scheduled for Review

Spring 2019

Policy Statement

  1. During the Summer semester, undergraduate and graduate courses may be scheduled in designated parts of term over a 17-week semester.
  2. No part of term in a Summer semester will be: a) longer than 16 weeks, or b) shorter than one week.
  3. Courses ending in the 17th week of the semester may only be scheduled if there are instructional activities taking place in the week prior to the beginning of the Fall semester. Such courses will be recommended to the Provost and Vice President for Academic Affairs for approval on a restricted basis because of the impact of 17th week scheduling on evaluation of students academic standings and eligibility for federal financial aid and institutional scholarships.
  4. Because under federal financial aid disbursement regulations, students may not be paid Pell grant funds related to a course enrollment until that course begins, part-of-term scheduling that begins after Week 1 should be only used when necessary and justified in order to minimize the impact on students' financing.
  5. To minimize time conflicts for students, all courses are expected to follow the Uniform Scheduling Committee's guidelines for time blocks (see definitions section below).
  6. In order to allow to enroll in multiple Summer courses:
    1. Courses must be scheduled by each academic program equally among time blocks A, B, C, and D/E. Time blocks D/E are considered interchangeable for distribution purposes.
    2. With the exception of courses assigned the instructional type of laboratory or art studio, each course must be scheduled within one time block creating no conflicts with courses in other time blocks.
  7. In compliance with subregulatory guidance1 from the U.S. Department of Education on the requirements to be a standard term2 institution, all courses will have a start and end date within the boundaries of a single term.3
  8. The Summer semester will have one Census Date
    1. Students are expected to be registered in all courses for Summer, regardless of the courses scheduling, by Census Date.
    2. Students receiving state, federal, and institutional financing will be evaluated for the eligibility for aid at Census Date.
    3. Students may add courses after Census Date up to the last business day in July following procedures established by the Registrar and the Controller.
  9. There will be four grading periods in the Summer semester: a) Monday of the sixth week, b) Monday of the 11th week, c) Monday of the 17th week, and d) Saturday of the 17th week. Faculty must file grades by Monday of the 17th week but have the option to file earlier. The only exception to this requirement will be for the restricted number of courses with instructional time in the 17th week. Faculty of these courses must file grades by Saturday of the 17th week.
  10. To comply with U.S. Department of Education credit hour regulations (34 CFR 600.2):
    1. All courses will be scheduled to meet the direct instructional requirements set forth in the Academic Credit Hour policy.
    2. Courses assigned the following instructional types cannot be scheduled "TBA": Art studio, lecture, laboratory, music study - ensemble, Physical Education and Recreation, and Recitation.
    3. A note in the course schedule is required for courses that do not meet in a regular pattern.
  11. Courses will be represented in the official schedule using the following convention:
    1. Courses will be denoted as beginning on the Monday the course begins and ending on the Friday the course ends, unless the week ends on Saturday or Sunday, in which case the exact date will be listed. All courses approved for instructional activity in the 17th week must end by Friday of that week.
    2. The instructional type of all courses will be stated on the course schedule.
  12. To ensure the institution's efficient compliance with federal financial aid disbursement regulations (34 CFR 668.164), courses scheduled for a part of term will be coded by the Registrar's Office.
    1. The Uniform Scheduling Committee is assigned the task of developing standardized parts of term for the approval of the Provost and Vice President for Academic Affairs.
  13. Courses submitted to the Registrar for scheduling that do not meet the requirements of this policy will be returned to the Dean's designee for adjustment.
  14. Requests for exceptions to this policy must be approved by the Provost and Vice President of Academic Affairs after an evaluation of the Uniform Scheduling Committee. The Provost's decision is final.

Footnotes

1 Subregulatory guidance includes Federal Student Aid Handbook, 2015-2016, Vol. 3, Calculating Awards and Packaging; and General Provisions, Rederal Register, Vol. 61, Number 231, Page 60581.

2 The U.S. Department of Education classifies institutions' academic calendars as 1) standard, 2) nonstandard, 3a)non term - clock hour, and 3b) non term - credit hour.

3 The approval of this policy will simultaneously effect a revision of the "Grades, Quality Points, and Grade Point Averages - Undergraduate" policy that eliminates the grade of IP, which is defined as a grade assigned to a student enrolled in a course approved to conclude after the "Last Day of Classes" on the academic calendar.

Reason for Policy 

This policy recognizes the need for flexible scheduling in the Summer semester but requires such scheduling be standardized to minimize time conflicts for students and ensure compliance with federal academic credit hour and financial aid disbursement regulations.

Responsibilities 

For following the policy: All personnel who schedule courses

  For enforcement of the policy: Registrar

For oversight of the policy: Provost and Vice President for Academic Affairs

For notification of policy: Policy Librarian

For procedures implementing the policy: Provost, Chair of Uniform Scheduling Committee, Registrar

Definitions 

Instructional Types – The instructional type (e.g., lecture, lab, internship) is assigned to a course during the curriculum approval process. A comprehensive list of instructional types are specified in the Academic Credit Hour policy.

Part of Term Courses – Courses scheduled for a period less than the first day of classes and the end of the last day of classes as indicated on the academic calendar. There is no designated final examination period for part of term courses.

Scheduling Blocks – A: 8 - 10 a.m. MTWRF; B: 10:10 a.m. - 12:10 p.m. MTWRF; C: 12:20 - 2:20 p.m. MTWRF; D: 2:30 - 4:30 p.m. MTWRF; E: 4:40 - 6:40 p.m. MTWRF.

Cross-Referenced Policies 

Academic Calendar

Academic Credit Hour

Revision History

The policy approved August 17, 2016 was titled Course Scheduling and applied to scheduling for the Fall, Spring, and Summer semesters. The revision approved April 26, 2017 splits that policy into Course Scheduling - Spring and Fall and Course Scheduling - Summer. In the revision, of the Summer semester requirements, the following changes were made: the Augmester was eliminated; a restricted number of courses are now allowed to be scheduled in the 17th week of the semester created by revision of Academic Calendar policy ;additional grading periods were added, and the Summer time blocks were specified.