Course Scheduling - Summer

Course Scheduling - Summer

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.

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

Cross-Referenced Policies 

Academic Calendar

Academic Credit Hour