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Fayetteville State University Academic Progression Standards
 Limitation on Class Withdrawals
 Effective Fall 2009
 “FSU 2.0”

  1. Effective fall 2009, students must earn a minimum cumulative GPA of 2.0 to maintain good academic standing. The following actions will occur when a student’s cumulative GPA falls below 2.0.
    1. The first time a student’s cumulative GPA falls below 2.0, the student will be placed on probation for one semester to give him/her an opportunity to improve the GPA. Please note: Some degree programs require a GPA higher than 2.0. See program requirements.
    2. If a student’s cumulative GPA is below 2.0 for two consecutive semesters, the student will be placed on academic suspension and will not be permitted to re-enroll without successfully appealing academic suspension. See “Academic Regulations” in the online FSU Undergraduate Catalog.
    3. A student who is placed on suspension more than two times will not be permitted to re-enroll except through the provisions of the Academic Fresh Start program. The number of suspensions will be counted from the semester of first enrollment.*
    4. All students enrolled in Fall  2009 will have two semesters to bring their cumulative GPA up to 2.0.  After Fall 2009, students will be placed on academic suspension after two consecutive semesters below 2.0, regardless of whether the first semester below 2.0 was Fall or Spring.
  2. Beginning in fall 2009 students will be permitted to withdraw from a maximum of five classes during their academic careers. For the first five class withdrawals, students will receive a final grade of W, which does not affect their GPAs. After five class withdrawals, students will be required to complete all classes in which they enroll and earn an appropriate final grade. Currently enrolled students will be permitted five withdrawals beginning in fall 2009 regardless of the number of withdrawals they have prior to fall 2009. Please note: Students who wish to withdraw from all classes in a semester must withdraw from the university; students will receive WU grades, which do not affect the number of class withdrawals permitted.

To achieve these standards, each student must

  • Communicate with his or her advisor on a regular basis to ensure enrollment in appropriate classes.
  • Check FSU email regularly for notifications of interim grade warnings and meet immediately with instructors to discuss corrective actions to improve performance in response to such warnings. Since students can withdraw from classes only five times, withdrawing from a class must be used only as a last resort.
  • Withdraw from classes only after exercising all other opportunities for academic improvement.
  • Take full advantage of all academic support resources, especially in classes that utilize the Extension Grade policy. This Extension Grade policy permits a student to earn an EX grade (Extension) in any course in which the student completes at least 10 hours of documented academic support activities. The EX grade does not affect the GPA; however, the student must repeat the course in the next semester. The EX grade does not count as a course repeat.
  • Complete an Academic Success Plan every semester the cumulative GPA is below 2.0.

To help students achieve these standards, faculty members must

  • Monitor student academic progress and issue interim grade alerts as early in the semester as needed.
  • Communicate with advisees who are identified through the early alert system.
  • Refer students in classes and advisees to all appropriate academic support resources.
  • Help advisees create an Academic Success Plan and report advisees’ progress in completing them.
  • Consider applying the Extension Grade Policy in these classes.

To help student achieve the new standards, the entire campus community must

  • Help students understand the need to make wise choices about time management so that they are devoting sufficient time and effort to their academic studies.
  • Help students understand the new standards and give them correct information on resources to assist them in achieving the new standards.
  • Encourage students to give their best effort in all classes so they will remain on track to degree completion.

*For example, a student who was first suspended after Spring 2009 and is suspended again after Spring 2010 will have been suspended two times. The implementation of the academic progression standards differs in this from the implementation of the new course withdrawal polic