Advisor Manual-E
Early Academic Assessment
Education, College of
Educational Adjustment Committee
Emerging Scholars Program
Engineering Technology
English Compostion Grade Requirement
English Course Requirements for Graduation
English Placement Criteria
English Proficiency
Enrollment Policy, Review of
Ethical Issues in Society
Exemption from English Proficiency Requirement
Exclusion Appeal
Exposure Areas
External Credit
The university policy on early academic assessment requires that courses taught at the 1000- and 2000-level include a means of assessing student progress, normally before the end of the fourth week of classes but no later than the sixth week. This assessment should provide students with feedback regarding their performance. Instructors are requested to provide the University Advising Center with a list of names of students who have not achieved a satisfactory level (C or better) on this early assessment for the purpose of follow-up and referral to appropriate campus resources.
For programs in Education which lead to a teaching certificate, students begin in either CFPCA or Liberal Arts & Sciences and earn at least 53 semester hours with a minimum GPA of 2.50. Students must also pass examinations in English Proficiency, Mathematics Proficiency, and, effective Fall 1993, the Basic Skills Examination of the Michigan Teacher Competency Testing Program. Information about the latter examination is available from the Directed Student Teaching Office, Room 223 Education, 577-1642. Students should take these examination well in advance (four to eight months) of the term for which they wish to be admitted. Finally, all applicants to Education must present evidence of a negative TB test and must attend an orientation conducted by that college. Admission to Education is selective but not competitive: all students who meet the criteria will be admitted.
Questions that require a response from someone in Education should prompt the advisor to call the college to check on availability of staff rather than merely referring the student.
College of Education degrees that are advised by the department (not the UAC office) are:
- Art Education
- Physical Education
- Business and Technical Education
- Music Ecucation
- Dance Education
MAT 1110 and 1120 offer no credit in the College of Liberal Arts & Sciences or CFPCA. Remember to deduct this credit when processing a Change of College for students transfering from the College of Education to one of these colleges.
Educational Adjustment Committee
The Educational Adjustments Committee for the College of Liberal Arts & Sciences is the body to which students may direct an appeal concerning a requirement which is specific to this colleges. The student initiates the process by picking up an instruction form in the Office of Student Services for Liberal Arts & Sciences: 2155 Old Main: 7-5188.
The process for students in the College of Fine, Performing & Communication Arts begins by the student contacting his or her major department.
It should be understood that while the student has the privilege of petitioning for some modification or waiver of a requirement, the advisor should caution students that appeals are not automatic and not to submit a baseless appeal that wastes his or her time as well as that of the major department and of the EAC.
A student does not appeal to the EAC concerning a requirement that is specific to his or her academic major: such a petition must be directed to the department.
Similarly, an appeal concerning a requirement that is shared between the college and the university should be directed in writing to William Hill, Office of the Provost, 4117 F/AB. A memorandum from the student's major department or college should accompany the student's letter; if the student has not declared a major nor been admitted to a professional program, the memorandum should be written by an advisor in the UAC.
The Emerging Scholars Program is a program designed to give more students the chance to successfully pursue careers in the Sciences, Mathematics and Engineering.
The academic component of ESP focuses on the foundational courses of Pre-Calculus and Calculus. The program centers around the nationally accepted concept of the "Calculus Workshop" developed by Professor Uri Treisman at the University of California at Berkley.
The Pre-Calculus and Calculus Workshops are 4-hour per week problem-solving supplements to the regular lecture course. It is somewhat analogous to a lab for a science course. Students in ESP register for both a specifically designated section of Math 1800, 2010 or 2020 and the workshop. In the workshop, students work in groups on very challenging problems not normally presented in a "regular" course. Two main principles govern the workshop:
- The Workshops constitute a type of honors program. Workshop problems are carefully constructed to require both a very high level of mathematical thinking as well as a mastery of mathematics that is the basis for advanced study. Students will be constantly challenged and encouraged to deal with the subject matter in depth and at an advanced level--to go beyond the boundaries of the standard course.
- Workshops encourage collaborative learning and group interaction. Students learn through their own efforts, not through lectures.
For further information, call the Mathematics department at 577-2596.
Courses taken in Engineering Technology may not be used for a degree in Liberal Arts & Sciences or Fine, Performing and Communication Arts. Such credit is not considered "professional" credit and simply does not count toward the degree in the aforementioned colleges.
English Composition Grade Requirement
Effective Fall term 2008, all students will be required to demonstrate the Basic Composition (BC) and Intermediate Composition (IC) competencies by satisfactory completion of designated courses or equivalent transfer courses with a "C" or better, or by earning advanced placement credit. Basic and/or Intermediate Composition courses successfully completed at Wayne State University or transferred from another university or college prior to Fall Term, 2008 are exempt from this new grade requirement.
NOTE: Transfer policy does not cancel out the requirement that BC and IC must be completed with a "C" or better grade.
English Course Requirements for Graduation
For a degree in CFPCA or Liberal Arts & Sciences, course requirements in English under the quarter system (Fall 1962 through Summer 1980) varied from a maximum of 16 quarter hours (1962 - 69) to a minimum of eight quarter hours (1970 - 79). For students who took English courses at WSU under the quarter system and who plan now to graduate from CFPCA or Liberal Arts & Sciences, the policies below apply.
- If the student took two beginning English courses when they were given for three quarter hours each, he or she must take an English course on the "0200" level.
- If the student took two beginning English courses when they were given for four quarter hours each, the requirement is considered satisfied at eight quarter hours and any literature courses beyond that work will apply toward the old humanities requirement.
- If the student took one three-quarter-hour course and one four-quarter-hour course, the requirement is considered satisfied with seven quarter hours and any literature courses beyond that work will apply toward the old Humanities requirement.
Please note that the phrase "beginning English courses" is not to be construed as including English 0130 or its successor, English 1010. Such courses are essentially remedial in their purpose.
At a regular meeting on December 11, 1974, the Faculty Council of Liberal Arts approved a proposal to allow English 0150 (Freshman Composition) to be taken twice with the total of eight quarter hours counting toward graduation. This policy became effective beginning the Fall Quarter of 1975 and lasted through the Summer Quarter of 1980. It applies to students who plan to graduate from Liberal Arts or one of its successors and must not be taken to mean that WSU's professional schools recognize this policy.
- Any student who has taken the ACT within the past two years prior to enrollment and has a score of 21 or higher on the English portion is placed into ENG 1020. Students with scores older than 2 years must take the English Qualifying Exam.
- Students who have an ACT score below 21 on the English portion place into ENG 1010.
- Students placed into ENG 1010 by ACT score who are not satisfied with their placement, as well as all students who do not have ACT scores less than 2 years old, take the Criterion Exam. For now, a score of 1 or 2 on the Criterion Exam will place a student in ENG 1010, a score of 5 or 6 will place a student into ENG 1020, scores of 3 or 4 will be read by English faculty who will then determine placement.
Effective August 24, 2007, the English Proficiency Exam has been eliminated as a requirement for Wayne State students.
Students should be directed to the Office of the Registrar for appeals for exceptions to university enrollment policies, such as medical withdrawals and tuition cancelation.
Exemption from English Proficiency Requirement
Among students who plan to earn a degree in FPCA and Liberal Arts & Science, exemption from English Proficiency is granted now to only three groups:
- those who were fully admitted prior to the fall term of 1983 and who took ENG 102 and a 200-level English course at WSU and earned an "A" in both courses;
- those who were fully admitted to WSU beginning with the fall term of 1983 through the spring / summer term of 1987 who scored a "3" or higher on the AP Exam in English;
- those who attained junior standing at WSU prior to the beginning of Fall 1959.
Courses providing this exposure will explore ethical and moral questions in various venues and contexts. Students entering the University fall 2005 or later are required to successfully complete one course selected from an approved list of options.
Students who have been excluded from the colleges of Liberal Arts & Sciences or Fine, Performing and Communication Arts based on their academic performance may appeal the minimum one-calendar year Exclusion based upon documented extenuating circumstances.
The completed exclusion appeal packet, along with a current copy of the WSU transcript, must be submitted to the Reinstatement Committee no later than the 18th of the month to be reviewed in that month. The committee reviews appeals only once each month.
The student may not file an exclusion appeal while s/he is completing current coursework. However, the student may wish to use current coursework, once completed, as the basis for an appeal. Please consult with the chair of the Reinstatment Committee on how current coursework can serve as the basis for an exclusion appeal.
If the student's appeal is granted, the student will meet with an assigned advisor and complete a Reinstatement Contract, which both will sign. The contract will stipulate the minimum grades and other academic conditions for the term of registration. The student may not register again until s/he can produce grades from the term that are at least "C" and meet contract conditions.
The student may file only one appeal. If the exclusion appeal is denied, the student may still apply for Reinstatement following the normal one-calendar year exclusion period.
Exposure Areas became a requirement for students entering the University Fall 2005 and later. This requirement provides students with broad-based understanding in three topical areas: Cultural Diversity, Ethical Issues in Society, and Science, Technology & Society. No more than two courses may be elected from a single subject area to meet these requirements.
The exposure areas are required for any student entering the University as a first-time freshman fall 2005 or later and for all students entering the University Fall 2007 or later. Students earning a second degree, whose first degree is not from WSU, are also required to complete the Exposure areas, as are students entering the University under the transfer policy.
Students earn credit outside WSU from any of the following sources: the Advanced Placement Program, the College-Level Examination Program, colleges and universities in the United States, colleges and universities in other countries, and the International Baccalaureate Examination Program. Advisors should note that no credit is granted for life experience, portfolio, or for military or business training, a policy that holds regardless of any recommendation by the American Council on Education.
- External Credit: Advanced Placement Program
Credit is awarded for Advanced Placement Examinations according to the WSU Advanced Placement Policies, a document produced by Transfer Credit Evaluation and updated annually. For most AP exams, a minimum score of "3" is necessary to receive credit. Scores of "4" or "5" will usually result in additional credit. The document also indicates the course or courses at WSU to which that credit is equivalent and, when appropriate, the General Education Requirement that is fulfilled by that credit.
Because different schools vary in their policies concerning Advanced Placement credit, such credit does not transfer directly from one institution to another. Transfer students who took AP examinations in high school should have an official score report sent to WSU by writing to:
Advanced Placement Program
Because this information may change, students should call first.
P.O. Box 6671
Princeton, NJ 08541-6671
and enclosing the following:- Full name at the time of testing
- Birthdate
- Social Security Number
- Institution to which scores are to be sent. The School Code # for WSU is 1898.
- Institution where examination was taken
- Subject and year of each examination
- A check or money order for $8, the price of reporting one or more exams results to one institution; rush requests are $13 and may be placed by calling 1-609-771-7300. Scores for exams taken prior to 1988 must be ordered in writing.
- External Credit: College-Level-Examination Program
Credit is awarded for College-Level Examination Program (CLEP) tests according to the Wayne State University College-Level Examination Program Policies, a document produced by Transfer Credit Evaluation and updated annually. It includes minimum scores required to receive credit, the amount of credit awarded, the WSU course to which that credit corresponds, and the General Education Requirement fulfilled by that credit.
Because different schools vary in their policies concerning CLEP credit, such credit does not transfer from one institution to another. Transfer students who have taken CLEP examinations while attending another institution must have an official score report sent to WSU by calling 1-609-951-1026 or by writing to the address below. The School Code # for Wayne State University is 1898.
College-Level Examination Program Transcript Service P.O. Box 6600 Princeton, NJ 08541-6600 and enclosing the following:
- Full name at the time of testing.
- Birthdate
- Social Security Number
- Date, month and year the test was taken
- Name of the test and test center
- Name of the institution to which scores are to be sent
- A check or money order for $10 per test date.
The Testing & Evaluation Office (698 SCB: 313 / 577-3400) administers CLEP examinations. The current cost is $44. per examination plus a non-refundable service fee (paid separately) of $7.
As of July 1, 1993, all scaled scores for the General Examinations will be reported as a three-digit number with zero as the last digit; further, subscores will no longer be reported.
- External Credit: Domestic Schools
The acceptance or denial of credit earned at other colleges and universities in the United States is guided by the Transfer Student Statute which established the first universitywide policy concerning a student's educational history. Implementation of the Statute and several provisions in it departed significantly from past practice and required advisors to look at transcripts in a much different light.
The statute, passed by Board of Governors in July of 1983, applies to transfer students who entered Wayne State in the winter term of 1984 or later. Such students are granted credit for transferable courses which they passed. Students who entered WSU prior to Winter 1984 had to have earned a "C" or better for the course to transfer.
Another point concerning the transfer of "D" work is that for many programs an advisor must have a copy of the other school's transcript to inform a student correctly as to which requirements he or she has fulfilled and which remain to be met. The practice of not listing on the WSU transcript another school's grades along with the transferred credit is common and long-standing. For professional programs that require a minimum grade of "C" in pre-professional courses, the advisor must refer to the other school's transcript.
The posting of all transferable credit occasionally leads to some misunderstanding. Under the policies and procedures of the statute, all transferable credit is to be posted to the student's WSU transcript, not just the credit that counts nor merely the "best" credit for a given program. It is relatively unusual that a student who transfers more than 90 semester hours to WSU does not understand that he or she must do a certain minimum amount of work (e.g. at least 30 hours for the Residence Requirement) to earn a degree here. It requires more effort, however, to explain to a transfer student from a community college that of the 77 hours that have been "accepted" from a two-year school or schools, only 64 are going to count toward the minimum number of hours required to graduate and that he or she will need to accumulate, in this example, 120 hours plus the excess beyond 64, or 133 hours as a minimum in order graduate. In short, the notion of credit being accepted but not counting is significantly different for students as well as for advisors who were at Wayne State under the former system.
Credit is awarded for the number of semester hours earned at the other institution regardless of the credit hours associated with the equivalent course at Wayne State. One exception involves pre-calculus: the Department of Mathematics stipulates that not more than five semester hours for the equivalent of our MAT 180 should be transferred.
Although grades do not transfer and an Grade Point Average earned at another institution will not affect an GPA at Wayne State, grades earned elsewhere will be used to determine a student's admissibility to a professional school or college at Wayne State.
If a student repeats at Wayne State the equivalent of a course already transferred from another school, credit for the transferred course must be deducted from the student's total hours. Currently there is no technology that automatically identifies such credit. The advisor must be alert for such repetition and refer the matter to Transfer Credit Evaluation unit who will deduct the original credit (WSU course credit always prevails over credit from other sources); otherwise, the student, assuming if there is a problem that someone will take care of it, will begin to count on that credit for graduation. A good rule of thumb for students and advisors is to assume that there has never been an error that has not been caught by a graduation clerk.
Finally, the statute authorized the transfer "of up to 12 semester hours of credit earned in technical, vocational and applied (TVA) courses ... if such courses are determined to be cognate or related to a student's intended program." Procedurally, the student's major department must recommend to the TCEU that such credit be accepted.
Perhaps the most important operating principle resulting from the statute is that credit is transferred if the course is transferable. One result of this policy is that a student's total hours may include credit that does not apply but the same situation exists for course work taken at WSU. In short, because credit is neither added nor deleted on the WSU transcript based on the program the student is following, an advisor must not assume that the total hours on the transcript all count toward graduation.
- External Credit: Foreign Schools
Enrollment in undergraduate programs across the university includes many students who have transferred here from colleges and universities outside the United States. Students enter Wayne State from all over the world and from educational systems that differ significantly from each other and from that in this country.
Students should be referred to the Transfer Credit Evaluation unit for questions regarding transfer credits from foreign schools.
- External Credit: International Baccalaureate
Credit is awarded for the International Baccalaureate examinations in accordance with an established Wayne State policy. Very few schools in the metropolitan Detroit area currently participate in this program.
- External Credit: Military Service and Trainig
Based on a memorandum dated April 28, 1989 from Sanford N. Cohen, Senior Vice President for Academic Affairs and Provost, students who were fully admitted and matriculated at Wayne State beginning the fall semester of 1989 are ineligible to receive credit for military service or military training. However, "transfer credit may be granted for comparable military science courses completed satisfactorily at another accredited college or institution." This ruling derives from the Transfer Student Statute of 1983 which prohibits "the awarding of credit for training received in non-collegiate settings," a prohibition that applies also to police academy training programs.
Students who were fully admitted and matriculated prior to the fall of 1989 were eligible to receive four semester hours (6 quarter hours) of credit under the label "Military Service" if they had served a minimum of six consecutive months of active duty in any branch of the Regular or Reserve Armed Services and had received an honorable discharge. Students received this credit by presenting their DD 214 Discharge Papers to the Transfer Credit Evaluation Unit or to its predecessor. This credit exempted a student from fulfilling the Public Acts of Michigan Statute No. 205, 1931, also known as the Government Requirement.