SiMON FRASER UNIVERSITY

MEMORANDUM

To...................ENATE

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..,

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.

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From

SENATE UNDERGRADUATE ADMISSIONS BD

Subject..

SPECIAL S1E.ER

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Date ......

JUNE 19.1975

MOTION:

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"That Senate approve the institution of a

special semester for the Fall semester 75-3,

as set forth in S.75-106, for selected

students in academic difficulty."

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At its meeting of 4th June, the Senate Undergraduate

Admissions Board discussed the attached proposal for the institution of

a special semester for students in academic difficulty.

During discussion of this proposal, those making it

indicated that their examination of student records indicated that the

number of students on academic probation, required to withdraw, and

permanent withdrawal from the University is very large and that, while

it is clear that many students found University level courses beyond

their academic talents, it was equally clear that, in a large number of

cases, factors other than academic ability were contributing significantly

to the number of students in these categories. The proposal is designed

to assist such students in overcoming these deficiencies. Since a

sufficient number of students who are in academic difficulties and who

had been approached with regard to their interest in enrolling in such

a program had indicated that they wished to enrol in it during the

Fall semester, it is proposed to institute the program on an experimental

basis for that semester, to suspend required to withdraw and permanent

withdrawal status for the students enrolled pending evaluation of the

results of the program, and to report these results to Senate following

completion of the program with a recommendation for further action.

CQV

I. Mugridge

:ame

.

S

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SiMON FRASER UNIVERSifY

MEMORANDUM

.

• Members of Senate Undergraduate

To .....

..........

.A'dmtssionS

?

.... ..... .... ......... .

...........

...............

(see distribution)

Subject..

Proposed semester for students?

in academic difficulty

From I.

Mugridge

Chãirman, ......

Senate Undergraduate Ackniss ions Board

Date..

9th June, 1975

I am attaching Professor Wilson's additional

comments on the proposal for a special semester. You will recall

that, at last Wednesday's meeting, it. was agreed to distribute

it to members of the board for comment. If you wish to meet

again to discuss the proposal, please inform Mr. McMillan so

that a meeting may be called for this Wednesday, 11th June. If

not, please inform him whether you approve or disapprove this

proposal so that, should it be accepted, it may be forwarded to

Senate in time for the July meeting.

ct

I Mugr dge

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-

:ams

DISTRIBUTION

A.C. McMillan

R.A. Ironside

R. Schiffer

D.C. Wailbaum

G.A. Rheumer

T. Oliver

L. M. Prock

A.H. Elliott

J.C. Irwin

D. Ryeburn

R.K. Debo

S.

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Proposed Semester for Students in Academic Difficulty

Purpose:

1. To identify by an experimental semester those

students in academic difficulty;

a.

who can be encouraged to go on with their

formal studies with a reasonable chance

of success; or

b.

who should be encouraged to apply their

energies in some alternate form of activity

- with suggestions as to the direction that

activity might take; and

2. To plan the experimental semester in such a way

that in future;

a.

assistance can be given to students before

they are required to withdraw, from the

• ?

University; and

b.

such 'high risk' students can be identified

early in their academic programs.

Academic Difficulty

Students whose performance does not meet the standards

set. by 'Simon Fraser University are first warned, then placed on

academic probation, and eventually required to withdraw from the

University for a period of one calendar year. If at the end of

that time there is still no considerable improvement, they are

placed on permanent withdrawal and may not re--apply for

• admission for a period of five' years..

It should be noted that in each case the student had

met the entrance requirements of Simon Fraser University and

was' considered to be a candidate for an undergraduate degree.

/ ......

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.2

Many students whoe high school performance is marginal

have improved considerably at University and a summary of the

performance of students with High School GPA's of 2.5 or less

is attached as Appendix I.

The quality of the performance of these students

provides a firm basis for suggesting that many students in

academic difficulty can be assisted to perform satisfactorily

without in anyway lowering the standards set by the Departments

and Faculty of Simon Fraser University.

Extent of the Problem

•

Of all the students who have registered at Simon Fraser

University since September,

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1965, there are approximately 3,400

who have as the last entry on their academic records a statement

that they are in academic difficulty,

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in one of the categories

mentioned above.

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This number does not include those students

who have been in one of these categories at some point but

•

have managed to improve their performance sufficiently to have

their records cleared.

• ?

If only those students who have been recently enrolled

are selected - in this instance in the semesters 73/3,

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74/1,

74/2 and 74/3 - the numbers are:

On academic warning

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80

On academic probation

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- 464

Required to withdraw

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- 121

• Permanent Withdrawal

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64

These semesters are typical of the numbers involved

and the amount of wastage.

Method of handling the problem

A special semester is proposed as a way of diagnosing

the particular areas of difficulty which the students have and

•

helping them to recognize and cope with these difficulties.

/ .......

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S . ?

.3.

Organization

- The proposal is for a diagnostic-remedial semester.

- Any extension of the project beyond the one

semester would depend upon the effectiveness of

the results, and upon the recommendation of

Senate that such an extension occur.

Participating Services

The possibility of such

a semester has been discussed

fully with the appropriate services at Simon Fraser University.

They have expressed their enthusiasm for such a project and

are willing to contribute to it

by providing assistance in the

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following ways.

1. Academic Advice Centre

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Information on academic offerings

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Individual Program

.

Planning

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Information on University

regulations.

2. Counselling Service

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Self-knowledge related to a

commitment to educational

p

and/or alternative life goals.

3

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Financial Aid

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Personal budgeting for

individual students and their

families

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Information about various

financial programs.

4. Library

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How to manipulate the biblio-

graphic system and extract

. information which is required

•

in their own research.

5. Manpower

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The availability of general and

itemized employment services -

and job search techniques.

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6.

Reading and Study Centre - The learning of reading and

study skills.

7.

English 010 - Writing

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- Effective written expression -

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writing skills.

8.

Deans and Administrators - Information about the various

Faculties and the relationship

o1 students to faculty.

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A

Coordinator will be

•

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responsible for the general

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administration and integration

of the program.

Student Commitment.

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Students accepted for this special semester would be

required to assume a commitment of twelve (12) semester hours.

This commitment would allow the University to give them the

status of full-time students. The twelve hours would be allocated

in the following way:

1)

Six hours of regularly scheduled classes, appropriate

to the individual's program. Credit would be given

for regularly assigned grades; faculty would have no

indication that the student was a member of an

experimental group.

2)

Six regularly scheduled hours of diagnostic-remedial

classes for the group as a whole, with special

sessions related to the students' individual needs

arranged in the same way as regular tutorial sessions:

Scheduling

A suggested schedule is attached for information (Appendix II)

•

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Because these students would pre-register, any preliminary assessments

required by the services - for example Reading and Study; or for

enrolment in English 010 - could be arranged before classes begin.

The Office of the Registrar is prepared to schedule the regular

group and tutorial type sections.

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.5

Size of Group

As this is an experimental project, the first group

would be limited to approximately 40 students.

Selection of Students

It was decided to select students from the 'Required

to Withdraw' and 'Permanent Withdrawal' categories for the

semesters 73/3 to 74/3 inclusive. This selection was made

for two reasons:

1) These students are in the greatest academic

difficulty and may be the most motivated to

cooperate in a special project; and

•

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2) The numbers make for a group of manageable

size.

There were a total of 185 students in the se1ectd

categories and it was decided to send letters to each of these

students, deleting the names of those who were in special

categories - taking only one course etc. -

?

and those for

whom the only address was one outside of Canada. This left

a total of 156 to whom letters were sent. Sixteen letters were

returned for lack of a current address and of the remaining

140, sixty-two have replied saying that they are interested,

forty-eight for September, 1975 and the remainder for a

later date.

Financial Aid

The Senate Committee responsible for financial aid

has already made provision for granting aid to students whose

present academic status would normally bar them from being

• ?

given such help. It is possible that some of the students

for the special semester could be considered under these

experimental provisions.

/ .....

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.6

Assessment of Student progress

The services listed above, working together, will prepare

an assessment of each stduent at the end of the semester. This

assessment will be based in part on the grades obtained in the

regular courses, and in part on the performance of the student

in the individual tutorial sessions.

Based on this assessment, there will be a recommendation,

to the University and to the student, indicating whether the

student be placed in the "continue academic studies" category or

in the "go elsewhere" category.

The recommendation would notbe binding on either the

University or the student nor would it prejudice the status of

the Audentin any future attempt to register at Simon Fraser

University. The final decision as to the student's status would be

made in accordance with the regulations of Senate through the

Admissions Office.

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General

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. It should be emphasized that the project is an experimental

one and would need to be reviewed by Senate and its appropriate

committee. There is no suggestion of a repetition of the project

without the express approval of Senate.

The project would not be able to identify all the factors

•

which are pertinent to student success.- but it might isolate

some of them as they relate to this University. We already know

that most of the students who are in the categories mentioned at

the beginning of the report are in that position by the end of

the third or fourth semester, although all semesters after the

second are, represented.

• ?

This information would supplement the work which has

•

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already been done through exit interviews of students who are

withdrawing voluntarily from the University; from a review and

follow-up of students who have appealed decisions through the

Senate Appeals Board between 1970 and mid-1974; the experimental

group of mature students who registered in 1969/3, 70/1 and 70/2

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[]

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.7

C

and theattrition study of 1,200 students who were either

administrative or voluntary drop-outs at Simon Fraser

University from September, 1965 to September, 1970.

Similar Studies

Similar studies are reported in the College Student

Personnel abstracts, but none of the studies duplicates the

conditions here. They do, however, indicate the usefulness

of the approach. Simon Fraser University is in the enviable

position of being young enough to have a readily identifiable

and manageable group of students to select for the remedial

program; the students come from a relatively homogeneous

school background and perhaps most important of all, the

services available to the students have proven their interest

in co-operative efforts.

01

Lolita Wilson

Assistant to the Vice-President, Academic

9th June, 1975

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