Academic Policies Committee Statement on the Course Repeat Policy:

 

SF State’s current policies allow students to withdraw from a course two times and to repeat a course as many times as desired. This results in students pursuing inappropriate academic schedules and limits enrollment opportunities for other qualified students. According to Clifford Adelman’s 2006 report, “The Toolbox Revisited: Paths to Degree Completion from High School through College,” students who accumulated excessive withdrawals and repeats cut in half their chances of earning a degree. Furthermore, every withdrawal and no-credit repeat means that a seat in a course is not available to another qualified student.

APC’s discussions of a new course repeat policy raised the same issues as a CSU Task Force:

Academic policies that involve course credits pose true dilemmas for university faculty and administrators. On the one had, we want students to succeed, and we want them to have the freedom to choose majors and the initiative to be ambitious and over-achieving in their course-taking. Therefore, if the students do overextend themselves, the punishment for these lapses in judgment is fairly gentle; the penalty for drops and withdrawals is no course credit awarded—a statement of “no harm done.” On the other hand, we have to be good stewards of faculty time and university facilities. When faculty teaching a course see the same faces reappear term after term, year after year, because these students have dropped or withdrawn or are repeating to get better grades, these professors are increasing their workload and circumscribing their freedom to teach other classes. In addition, a student who sits in a course until midterm only and then withdraws effectively prevents another student from sitting in that same seat for the entire term and earning credit. The balance between “no harm done” and the stress on faculty and physical resources must be considered. (Lucas, et. al. “Proposed Revision of CSU Academic Policies on Course Credits: Incompletes, Withdrawals, and Repeats.” 30 August 2007 http://www.calstate.edu/acadaff/docs/DWIR_Rpt-070830-v3-acc.pdf.)

The new course repeat policy is intended to balance unfettered and equitable access to SF State resources. It will also promote careful planning of academic schedules, facilitate student advising at pivotal academic points, and increase enrollment opportunities for all students.

Policies and resolutions that were reviewed during the development of this new policy:

SF State Academic Senate Policy S87-148, Academic Renewal

SF State Academic Senate Policy S98-196, Withdrawal from Courses (revised)

SF State Academic Senate Policy S96-197, Retroactive Withdrawal (revised)

SF State Academic Senate Policy F95-195, Incomplete Grade

SF State Academic Senate Policy S87-148, Academic Renewal

SF State Academic Senate Policy S06-191, Policy on Undergraduate Academic Advising

C.S.U. Executive Order 213, Academic Renewal (1974)

C.S.U. Executive Order 792, Grading Symbols (2001)

C.S.U. Academic Senate Resolution AS-2817-07/AA, Drops, Withdrawals, Incompletes, and Repeats (2008)

 

COURSE REPEAT POLICY

 

1)    In this policy, “repeat” means to enroll in a course for which a grade has already been assigned. “Grade” refers to all grading symbols defined in CSU Executive Order 792 (effective September 1, 2002). These include administrative grading symbols (AU, I, IC, RD, RP, W, and WU), traditional grades (A, B, C, D, and F, and their plus and minus designations), and non-traditional grades (CR and NC).

 

2)    Unless otherwise stated in the course descriptions in the current SF State Bulletin, courses may not be repeated for additional units of credit.

3)    When a student chooses to repeat a course in which the grade was F, WU, or IC, all units attempted and all grade points will be included in the student's cumulative totals. When a student chooses to repeat a course in which the grade was passing, all units attempted and all grade points earned will be used in the calculation of the student's grade point average (GPA), but the units earned will be applied to the calculation of total units earned only once. Exceptions to this method of GPA calculation are available, as described in Academic Senate Policy S87-148, “Academic Renewal Policy”; the provisions of S87-148 are not superseded by this course repeat policy.

4)    Once a bachelor's degree has been granted, repeating courses for any reason (e.g., as a visitor, post-baccalaureate, or College of Extended Learning student) will not affect the GPA or content of the degree already granted.

 

5)    A student cannot repeat a course for which he or she received an “I,” until the “I” is converted to a grade. This restriction does not apply to enrollment in a variable-topic course, if the repeat will be for a different topic.

6)    A student who has received a grade of B or higher may not repeat a course unless the course is described in the current SF State Bulletin as repeatable for credit.

7)    A student who has enrolled in a course and received a grade may repeat the course only once more, unless the course is described in the current SF State Bulletin as repeatable for credit.

8)    A student cannot repeat any course once the student has repeated 24 units at SF State, unless the course is described in the current SF State Bulletin as repeatable for credit.

9)    Courses repeated as the result of a student withdrawing from a full semester of coursework shall not count at all toward either the individual-course repeat limit or the 24-unit cumulative limit on course repeats.

10) Repeat enrollments in courses described in SF State Bulletins as repeatable for credit shall not count at all toward the total repeat units.

11) Only grades assigned for matriculated students’ enrollment in regular University courses in Fall 2008 and subsequent semesters shall be used to determine repeat enrollment eligibility.

12) Requests for exceptions to this policy shall require the consent of the department chair and the college dean.

13) Students whose disability or military reserve status might necessitate more repeat enrollments are encouraged to request such exceptions.

 

The following information is not part of the course repeat policy.

Below are two sets of data that provide different perspectives on repeat enrollment at SF State. The first set, Table 1, lists the number of students who have enrolled in certain courses three or four times. The table entries were taken from an enrollment report provided by the Office of the Registrar in February 2008. Courses described as “repeatable for credit” were deleted from the report, as were courses no longer listed in the Bulletin.

The second data set, Table 2, shows the enrollment status and A/B/C rate for students enrolled in four arbitrarily chosen, high-repeat enrollment courses in Fall 2007.

Table 1. Repeat-enrollment data for selected SF State courses. Number of students enrolled in state-supported courses three or four times, including Spring 2008 enrollment; data report provided by the Office of the Registrar, February 2008. Data for courses not listed in the 2007/2008 Bulletin or described as repeatable for credit are not shown.
Course	Title	Number of Students	Times Taken
ACCT 100	PRINCIPLES-FINANCIAL ACCT	761	3
MGMT 405	INTRO MGMT + ORG BEHAVIOR	632	3
ENG 114	FIRST YEAR COMPOSITION	555	3
MGMT 407	ECONOMICS FOR MANAGERS	365	3
ACCT 101	PRINCIPLES-MANAGERAL ACCT	349	3
ENG 214	SECOND YEAR COMPOSITION	263	3
ACCT 301	INTERM FIN ACCT I	257	3
FIN 350	BUSINESS FINANCE	242	4
BIOL 100	HUMAN BIOLOGY	239	3
ENG 414	ELEMENTS OF WRITING	217	3
DS 412	OPERATIONS MANAGEMENT	209	3
MATH 124	ELEMENTARY STATISTICS	209	3
MKTG 431	MARKETING	196	3
CHEM 333	ORGANIC CHEMISTRY I	178	3
ACCT 302	INTERM FIN ACCT II	171	3
BIOL 230	INTRODUCTORY BIOLOGY I	171	3
ECON 100	INTR MACROECON ANALYSIS	171	3
MATH 226	CALCULUS I	168	3
PSY 200	GENERAL PSYCHOLOGY	143	3
ECON 100	INTRO ECON ANALYSIS I	139	3
CHEM 335	ORGANIC CHEMISTRY II	136	3
CSC 212	INTRO SOFTWARE DEVEL/UNIX	136	3
MKTG 431	PRINCIPLES OF MARKETING	132	3
ACCT 100	PRINCIPLES-FINANCIAL ACCT	126	4
IBUS 330	INT BUS & MULTICLTRL RELN	125	3
MGMT 405	INTRO MGMT + ORG BEHAVIOR	123	4
CSC 210	INTRO COMPUTER PROGMG	120	3
BIOL 330	HUMAN SEXUALITY	119	3
BIOL 355	GENETICS	111	3
ENG 114	FIRST YEAR COMPOSITION	108	4
SPCH 150	FUND ORAL COMMUNICATION	108	3
DS 212	BUSINESS STATISTICS I	103	3
MATH 227	CALCULUS II	101	3
ASTR 115	INTRODUCTION TO ASTRONOMY	100	3
PHYS 220	GEN PHYS WITH CALC I	100	3
PLSI 200	AMERICAN POLITICS	100	3

 

Table 2. Fall 2007 enrollment status and grade distribution for four courses with high repeat enrollments.
ACCT 100, PRINCIPLES-FINANCIAL ACCT (Three-unit course; eight lecture sections were scheduled in Fall 2007.)
Enrollment status	total	A/B/C/CR	D/F/W/NC	% D/W/F
first time	411	211	200	49%
second time	79	41	38	48%
third time	27	13	14	52%
ECON 100, INTR MACROECON ANALYSIS (Three-unit course; seven lecture sections were scheduled in Fall 2007.)
Enrollment status	total	A/B/C/CR	D/F/W/NC	% D/W/F
first time	538	453	83	15%
second time	33	26	7	21%
third time	3	2	1	33%
BIOL 230, INTRODUCTORY BIOLOGY I (Five-unit course; one common three-unit lecture section and ten separate two-unit laboratory sections were scheduled in Fall 2007.)
Enrollment status	total	A/B/C/CR	D/F/W/NC	% D/W/F
first time	228	157	71	31%
second time	32	16	16	50%
third time	7	2	5	71%
fourth time	2	2	0	0%
fifth time	1	0	1	100%
CHEM 333, ORGANIC CHEMISTRY I (Three-unit course; one lecture section was scheduled in Fall 2007.)
Enrollment status	total	A/B/C/CR	D/F/W/NC	% D/W/F
first time	133	90	43	32%
second time	24	16	8	33%
third time	7	5	2	29%