SEC AGENDA April 14, 2020

SDSU Senate Executive Committee Emergency Meeting Agenda

April 14, 2020 Join Zoom Meeting (Meeting ID: 284-564-251)

3:00 pm

1. Emergency drop policies for the spring 2020 semester (Wheeler/AP&P) ……………..2

2. Emergency withdrawal policies for the spring 2020 semester (Wheeler/AP&P) ……..3

3. Credit/ No Credit policy for the spring 2020 semester (Wheeler/AP&P) ……………..4

4. Additional Credit/ No Credit policy for the spring 2020 semester (Wheeler/Hopkins)..5

5. Preliminary Technical Assessment of Proposed Senate Emergency Grading Policy

(Sheehan) …………………………………………………………………………..6

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Proposed Senate COVID-19 Emergency Grading Policy, version 10.0

Emergency drop policies for the spring 2020 semester:

#1 The Senate Chair and APP move that:

The deadline for dropping courses shall not be extended during the Spring 2020 semester. (Extending this deadline is not permitted by CSU Systemwide Academic Policy.)

Rationale: The first of the recommended motions was referred to APP by the Senate, based on Senator Ponomarenko's motion at the April Senate meeting. APP recommends against extending the deadline for “dropping” courses (where dropping a course entails that it is expunged entirely from a student’s record) because such a motion violates CSU systemwide policy and, therefore, would be null and void.

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Proposed Senate COVID-19 Emergency Grading Policy, version 10.0

Emergency withdrawal policies for the spring 2020 semester:

#2 The Senate Chair and APP move that:

The following Emergency Policy for Withdrawals be adopted for the Spring 2020 Semester only:

● Approval Process – For all withdrawals for courses taken during the Spring 2020semester, Deans and their designees shall have the right to approve withdrawalsfor students.

● Financial Aid - Information about how such decisions will affect Financial Aidshall be made available to students, and students shall have the opportunity tovisit with a financial aid advisor to receive advice.

● Retroactive Withdrawals - After the last day of instruction for a term, if astudent wishes to change assigned grades to W grades, the student shall requestto withdraw from individual classes or the full semester’s work. Totalwithdrawal requests shall be granted where the cause for substandardperformance was due to circumstances clearly beyond your control. The COVID-19 pandemic constitutes such a circumstance.

Rationale: This motion came from the Provost and the Deans, and would facilitate an easier process for authorizing withdrawals. There would be no penalties to students associated with withdrawals made during the semester.

(Compare with existing policy:

Current Term Withdrawals

Withdrawal Retroactively - After the last day of instruction for a term, if you wish to change assigned grades to W grades, you must request to withdraw from the full semester’s work; no requests for individual classes will be accepted. Total withdrawal requests may be granted only in verified cases such as accident or serious illness where the cause for substandard performance was due to circumstances clearly beyond your control. (p. 483))

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Proposed Senate COVID-19 Emergency Grading Policy, version 10.0

Credit/ No Credit policy for the spring 2020 semester:

#3 The Senate Chair and APP move that:

For courses taken during the Spring 2020 semester, a change in grading basis may be made on or before May 1, 2020 by 7:59 p.m. via Late Schedule Adjustment petition from the Registrar's office.

(Compare with existing policy for Credit/No Credit courses, item 6:

● Credit/No Credit – … 6. Change in grading basis may be made through the SDSUWebPortal on or before the 10th day of instruction by 7:59 p.m. No changes ingrading basis are permitted after that date. (p. 476))

Rationale: This motion came from the Provost and the Deans, and would extend the deadline for changing the grading status for individual courses to May 1 for the Spring 2020 semester only. This motion would pertain only to courses that already allow for a Credit/No Credit grading option, per Senate curricular processes. The total number of these sections is 3,535 (affecting 125,337 enrollments). 842 sections would remain unaffected by this change (meaning that students would not have the option to change to Credit/No Credit status), which would affect 14,987 enrollments.

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Additional Credit/ No Credit policy for the spring 2020 semester: #4: All students shall be allowed to request to change any course they are currently enrolled in to Credit/No Credit grading for the Spring 2020 semester. Students must make such requests no later than May 1, 2020. Courses taken for Credit/No Credit during the Spring Semester 2020 shall not count toward the 15-unit limit for such courses to count towards graduation. Deans shall work with their Chairs and Directors to provide students with guidance in making decisions about changing grading status. These recommendations should balance the following salient concerns:

A. The need to ensure that students remain in good standing in their programs. B. The need to ensure that students can make progress towards their degrees/certificates

and within the constraints imposed by accreditation and certification, as well as student specific restrictions such as those on student veterans, student athletes, international students, and those on specific types of financial aid.

C. The need to offer students reprieve in the form of a CR/NC option in the context of the COVID-19 pandemic.

The Administration shall work with Deans to facilitate the implementation of this policy.

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Information Technology Division San Diego State University 5500 Campanile Drive San Diego CA 92182 • 1604 Tel: 619 • 594 •3340 officeofcio@sdsu.edu

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MEMORANDUM DATE: April 14, 2020 TO: Senate Executive Committee FROM: Jerry Sheehan, Chief Information Officer SUBJECT: Preliminary Technical Assessment of Proposed Senate Emergency Grading Policy

1. Emergency withdrawal policies for the Spring 20202 semester The Senate Committee on Academic Policy and Planning (APP) moved to recommend the adoption of an Emergency Policy for Withdrawals for Spring 2020 where (1) Deans and their designees shall have the right to approve withdrawals for students, and (2) information about how such decisions will affect Financial Aid shall be made available to students

• How Accomplish: From a technical perspective, this can be accomplished by building an electronic document workflow where the existing Petition for Special Consideration for Late Schedule Adjustment form is replicated using the OnBase Document Imaging and Workflow Management system. Upon submission, the form will enter an approval workflow in OnBase. Once approved, the petition will route to the Office of the Registrar for manual processing.

• Level or Work: Medium, approximately two weeks to design and test prior to implementation. Paper based process would need to be used until automation is in place.

• Dependencies: Will need to identify all individuals who will be part of the review, approval, and processing workflow; will need language for email communication from the Office of the Registrar; and will need guidance and testing on workflow process. Any changes must be consistent with requirements in Executive Order 1037.

• Risks: • SPECIAL NOTE: No automation is possible of the consultation process that would

need to be done on a per student basis.

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• There will be limited time to test the system before it will need to go live.

• Timely completion of these actions is a necessity or there is risk to Financial Aid eligibility for Summer.

• Deans and their designees will need access to the OnBase system and training materials. Students will complete an electronic form to initiate the workflow, which can replace the PDF form currently posted online and will not require additional training documents to be created.

• Active email monitoring and usage will be vital in an efficient fashion to achieve goals by deadline for Students, Deans and their designees, and the Office of the Registrar.

2. Credit/No Credit policy for the Spring 2020 semester The Senate Committee on Academic Policy and Planning (APP) moved to recommend the adoption of an Emergency Policy for Credit/No Credit for Spring 2020 where all students shall be allowed to request to change the grading basis of courses they are taking during the Spring 2020 semester. This recommendation pertains only to courses that already allow for a Credit/No Credit grading basis, per Senate curricular processes. Students must make such requests no later than May 1, 2020 by 7:59 p.m. via Late Schedule Adjustment petition from the Office of the Registrar.

• How Accomplish: From a technical perspective, this can be accomplished by building an electronic document workflow where the existing Petition for Special Consideration for Late Schedule Adjustment form is replicated using the OnBase Document Imaging and Workflow Management system. Upon submission, the form will enter an approval workflow in OnBase. Once approved, the petition will route to the Office of the Registrar for manual processing.

• Level of Work: Medium, approximately one week to design and test document and workflow prior to implementation. Paper based process would need to be used until automation is in place.

• Risks: • SPECIAL NOTE: No automation is possible of the consultation process that would

need to be done on a per student basis. The current process is meant for “exceptional use” not a high number of students taking the action at once.

• This workload issue should be carefully considered and for Credit/No Credit would impact the Office of Advising & Evaluations and the Registrar directly. Financial Aid may also see increased load. Please refer

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directly to those groups for additional information on impact.

3. Additional Credit/No Credit policy for the spring 2020 semester The Senate Committee on Academic Policy and Planning (APP) moved to recommend the adoption of an additional Emergency Policy for Credit/No Credit for Spring 2020 where all students shall be allowed to request to change the grading basis of any course they are taking during the Spring 2020 semester, including courses that currently does not allow for a Credit/No Credit grading basis. Students must make such requests no later than May 1, 2020 by 7:59 p.m. via Late Schedule Adjustment petition from the Office of the Registrar.

• How Accomplish: From a technical perspective, there are two components that need to be accomplished. (1) batch change the grading basis for courses that currently do not allow for a Credit/No Credit to accept such grading option; and (2) building an electronic document workflow where the existing Petition for Special Consideration for Late Schedule Adjustment form is replicated using the OnBase Document Imaging and Workflow Management system. Upon submission, the form will enter an approval workflow in OnBase. Once approved, the petition will route to the Office of the Registrar for manual processing.

• Level of Work: • Batch change the grading basis: Medium-to-High, minimum two weeks to

assess, design and test prior to implementation. New Credit/No Credit grades will not be accepted until change is in place.

• Electronic document workflow: Medium, approximately one week to design and test document workflow prior to implementation. Paper based process would need to be used until automation is in place.

• Risks: • SPECIAL NOTE #1: The current Student Information System, SIMS/R, enforces

data integrity and will not allow Credit/No Credit grades for courses currently set to only accept letter grades.

• While it is technically possible to change the grading basis for courses that currently do not accept Credit/No Credit, detailed assessment will need to take place to understand the ripple and downstream impact to systems and process of this change, as well as impact to student’s academic standing.

• SPECIAL NOTE #2: No automation is possible of the consultation process that would need to be done on a per student basis. The current process is meant for

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“exceptional use” not a high number of students taking the action at once.

• This workload issue should be carefully considered and for Credit/No Credit would impact the Office of Advising & Evaluations and the Registrar directly. Financial Aid may also see increased load. Please refer directly to those groups for additional information on impact.

• There will be limited time to test the system before it will need to go live.

• Timely completion of these actions is a necessity or there is risk to Financial Aid eligibility for Summer.

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