SENATE AND ACADEMIC SERVICES
Student Enrollment, Student Services
3104 Maggie Benston Centre
MEMORANDUM
ATTENTION
FROM
RE:
Senate
Stephen Easton, Chair,
Senate
Policy Committee on Scholarships,
Awards and Bursaries
President's and Dean's Honour Rolls
TEL 778.782.5350
FAX 778.782.45732
DATE
March 15, 2010
S.10-72
At its meeting of March 15 2010 SPCSAB revised criteria for the University's system of term honour rolls. Details of
the changes are attached for Senate's information.
REGISTRAR & STUDENT ENROLMENT
Student Setvices
3000
Maggie Benston Centre
8888 University Drive, Burnaby,
Be
Canada V5A lS6
TEL 778.782.3108
FAX 778.782.5732
SPCSAB
10-04
REVISED
students.sfu.Ctl
MEMORANDUM
ATIENnON
Senate Policy Committee on Scholarships,
Awuds and Bursaries
CAll!
March 9,2010
fROM
RE:
Kate Ross
Registrar
&
Senior Director, Student Eruolment
President's and Dean's
Honour Rolls
PAGES 2
Aftee consulting with the Deans' Council, faculty groups and members of the University community, Registrar and
Student Enrolment Services is proposing to hannonize the University's system of semester honour rolls.
Motion #1:
that SPCSAB approve
a) the renaming of the University Honour RoU to the President's Honour RoU,
b) the addition of the criteria that students enroUed in EDUC 401, 402, 403, 404, 405, or 406
not be eligible for admission to the President's Honour RoU for that semester,
c) and the removal of the criteria that students obtain a minimnm cumulative GPA of3.60 in that
semester.
effective for
the Spring 2010 semester.
Rationale
Renaming the University Honour RoU to the President's Honour RoU pr ... nts a clear delineation from the Dean's
Honour Roll proposal below. If we left the name as is, it would be unclear which honour is consideeed higher.
The professional programs in the Faculty of Education consist largely of COUllies taken on a pass/withdraw basis. ;..
this makes selection via GPA impossible, students enrolled in their professional program selnesters
wiD
not be eligible
for
the honour roU. In
aU
other Selnesters, students enroUed in Faculty of Education programs will be eligible.
The removal of the cumulative GPA criteria ensures the honour roll is an award that recognizes success
in
a given
semester, regardless
of how students tared in previous Selnester. Overall acadentic success would be recognized
by
students being granted degree stmding (this proposal is currendy before Senate). It should be noted that cumulative
GPA
has
not been used in determining honour roU standing since 1988, though no documentation
has
been fOund to
support
the change in policy at that time.
With this motion, the criteria for the President's Honour Roll would be:
Motion #2:
Completion of a minimum of 30 units at SFU
Completion of a ntinimnm of 12 units in the semestee being evaluated
Minimum selnestee grade point average of 4.00
Not enroUed in any ofEDUC 401, 402, 403, 404, 405 or 406
chat SPCSAB approve the creation of a Dean's Honour Roll for each faculty, with identical eriteria to the
President'5 Honour Roll except that students are required to have a semester GPA at or above 3.50, to be
similarly shown on the student's permanent record, effective for the Spring 2010 semester.
SIMON FRASER UNIVERSITY
rtllNKINU Of THE WOALO
Rationale
There are currendya number of Dean's honour roDs within taculties that are maintained completely external to the
University's Student Infonnation Management System. These Dean's honour roDs have varying standards, and there
is little consistent practice between them, and no consistency between them and the University Honour Roll.
This system
is tar from ideal. Should a potential employer or graduate school contact Student Services we would have
no way to verify that a student was on a Dean's honour roll.
As
well, the differences in practice between the different
honour rolls and the lack of a Dean's honour roll
in
some faculties means many exceptional students receive no
recognition at all. Finally, as the Dean's honour roDs are external to SIMS, they are not currendy recorded on
transcripts, official or otherwise.
The honour roDs should be viewed as part of the University's retention strategy. The acknowledgement of
outstanding student success is one fuetor which can malse students feel like valued members of the academic
community, and malse them more likely to complete their program.
The current differences in business practices and
lack of
acknowledgement means the honour rolls are much less effective as a retention strategy than they could be.
This
proposal
will
hannonize the criteria for the President's and Dean's Honour Rolls together into a coherent
system that is properly recorded and automated, allowing the University to celebrate these exceptional students.
Students
on the President's Honour Roll would also be on the Dean's Honour Roll.
The criteria for the Dean's Honour RoDs would be:
Completion
of a minimum of 30 units at SFU
Completion of a minimum of 12 units in the semester being evaluated
Minimum semester grade point average of 3.50
Not enrolled in any ofBDUC 401, 402, 403, 404, 405 or 406
2