2019 Policy Changes for Advisers

Implementation of policy and regulation changes, 2019

Academic Advisers should be aware of the following changes, effective fall 2019. Note that several policies were temporarily changed in 2019 and 2020; a matrix of grading policies by quarter is here.

1. Changes to quarterly enrollment timeline:

A. The Add by Petition deadline is extended to the end of the ninth week of instruction.

Advising notes:

  • Students should not assume that classes added this late in the quarter will count toward full-time enrollment for financial aid purposes.

B. Students may drop classes online:

  • Until the end of the third week of instruction classes are fully dropped and do not show on the transcript.

  • Until the end of the sixth week of instruction classes remain on the transcript with a W.

  • Until the ninth week of instruction a student may choose an NP grade if they are in good academic standing. NP grades show on the transcript but are silent in the GPA.

  • Students may still request a W for medical/ emergency reasons through their college after the sixth week through the established process.

Advising Notes:

  • The W process no longer requires review by college advisers, unless it's after the deadline for documented medical or emergency reasons.
  • Choosing NP grading prior to the end of the term allows students who want to be finished with the course (and perhaps to enroll in the same course for the next term) to not have to wait until grades are posted.
  • See below for additional changes related to grading options.

2. Changes to grading and grading option policies:

A. Students may change the grading option for a course from P/NP to a letter grades, or from letter grades to P/NP until the end of the ninth week of instruction. As has been the case in the past, students must be in good academic standing to request P/NP grading. Some changes were made to grading policies for specific quarters due to remote instruction in 2019 and 2020.

B. After the ninth week of instruction, allows for automatic conversion of P/NP grades to letter grades when letter grades are required to fulfill major or graduation requirements (C for P and F for NP). The form is here.

C. Undergraduates enrolling in graduate courses will have letter grades as their default grading option. This will eliminate cases in which a student inadvertently takes a graduate course for their major on a P/NP basis even though the major has a letter grade policy.

D. With these changes, CCI will not entertain requests for grade option changes in undergraduate courses except in exceptional circumstances unforeseen in policy. Some changes were made to grading policies for specific quarters due to remote instruction in 2019 and 2020.

E.The “IP” (In Progress) grade, which has been used in a very limited number of courses, will no longer be used.

3. Changes to graduation requirements:

A. Senior residency requirement:

  • Requires CCI approval for waivers of senior residence. Waivers will not be approved except in exceptional circumstances unforeseen in policy.

  • Includes "approved off-campus study programs" to the residency calculation in the same way as EAP, and clarifies language to refer to "one or more study programs" (for example, if a student participates in both EAP and UC/DC).

  • Allows students in approved off-campus study programs to complete their final 10 credits in residence instead of 12.

  • Students who have already earned a minimum of 170 credits and who take more than ten credits elsewhere to satisfy subject requirements (except upper division major requirements) may choose at the time of graduation to only have some of their credits transferred to satisfy the residency requirement. This process will happen automatically between the Registrar’s and Admissions Offices at the time of graduation.

Advising Notes:

  • A list of "approved off-campus study programs" is posted on the CEP website.
  • Students may only choose to have some credits not transfer at the time of graduation; they may not choose to transfer only some courses in order to meet time-to-degree or other requirements. 
  • If a student was granted a waiver of senior residency by their college prior to the regulation change, the waiver will still be recognized. The college should send a residency waiver to the Registrar’s Office with written documentation that the waiver was approved prior to the regulation change. The college is not authorized to waive senior residency moving forward.
  • Allowing students in approved off-campus study programs to complete their final 10 credits in residence instead of 12 will allow those students who don’t need the additional credits to participate in the final quarter part-time program.

B. 180 credit requirement:

  • The provision was repealed that allowed undergraduate students to petition to be allowed to graduate with 178 credits (or to receive an automatic waiver of .5 credit). All students will now be required to earn 180 credits to graduate. 

  • Physical Education credit (currently only available through transfer credit) may only provide a maximum of 3 credits toward graduation.

Advising Notes:

  • If a student was advised in writing prior to the regulation change that they could graduate with 179.5 credits, a CCI petition may be filed and should include written documentation.

C. Catalog rights:

Advising Notes:

  • Students should be referred to the adviser for their major for information about the DC requirement.

D. Transfer credit:

  • If a student completes a course satisfying a UCSC general education (GE) requirement at another institution, a C- grade will be sufficient to fulfill the GE requirement if C- is a passing grade at that institution. This does not apply to major requirements, for which a C grade will continue to be required.

E. Majors:

  • An undergraduate major program with major-specific transfer admission screening requirements may require junior transfer students to obtain permission from them before moving into their major from a different proposed major. (Permission is already required for junior students who are declared in one major and wish to change to another.). Programs who wish to do this should submit this through the program review process so that the policy is published in the General Catalog. (Some programs have this provision in the 2019-20 General Catalog.)

  • CEP approved an amendment to its policy regarding Individual Major petitions, specifying deadlines by which such petitions must be submitted. The proposal must be received by CEP before the term in which the student intends to graduate at the latest. If the proposal is received by CEP while the student has senior standing, then the proposal must not extend the student’s expected graduation date.

F. Posthumous degrees:

  • The policy identifying when undergraduate students can be posthumously awarded a degree was amended.

4. Changes to CCI Petitions:

A. CCI will review petitions to continue enrollment at UCSC for a student past their ELWR or C deadline.

B. Students may petition CCI for substitution of GE requirements without petitioning through their college. CCI appeals information is here.

5. Changes to Minimum Progress requirements:

The number of credits an undergraduate must complete in their first year was reduced to 35 from 36, while requiring them to complete 72 credits in their first two years and 36 credits for every year thereafter. 

Advising Notes:

  • The academic and financial aid progress policies differ in the way that transfer credit is applied. Financial Aid recipients should ensure they understand what they need to do to maintain aid eligibility.

6. Changes to instructional policies:

A. Closed week policy:

  • The policy that prohibits examinations being given during the final week of instruction (“closed week”) was amended to clarify what is considered to be an examination.

B. Entry quizzes and grading policies:

  • Entry quizzes administered during the first week of a term and used to bar or disqualify students from the course are effectively prerequisites, and require approval by CCI as a major course revision, must be included in the catalog description, and must be stated in the syllabus distributed at the beginning of the course.