A new U policy is giving perpetual students extra time to graduate.
Since the U’s semester conversion in 1998, students who desired to graduate under the quarter system had a graduation deadline of Spring 2003.
On Tuesday, the Academic Senate passed an initiative to extend that deadline until Spring Semester 2005.
“There are enough students who have, for various reasons, prolonged graduation that we decided to move back the deadline,” said John Francis, associate vice president of academic affairs and undergraduate studies.
“Everyone seemed to agree there needs to be deadline,” Senate President Larry Meyer said.
A deadline helps students in the long run, Meyer said. Graduating students need to have the knowledge and skills of today, not the past, to compete in the workforce, Meyer said.
For many programs, including engineering and computer science, graduation requirements have changed significantly since 1998.
Meyer said the percentage of student’s affected by the change is small.
The students who do not graduate by the 2005 deadline may still have a chance to graduate. In order to do so, students will need special permission from the college dean?given on a case-by-case basis, he said.
Metallurgical Engineering Professor Mike Free voted to pass the policy in the Undergraduate Council where it was created.
He said the advisers in his department work closely with students who return after a long break to decide what classes will need to be taken to get the student back on track for graduation.
Because of the state costs of educating students, lawmakers continue to stress timely graduation, Francis said. The U’s average student takes six years to earn a four-year degree, he said.
Dustin Fehr, a long-time, long-term U student has been working on his degree for nearly a decade.
Fehr, an undeclared senior, is currently not enrolled in class. He recently returned home from Korea, where he lived and taught English to kindergarten aged children for one year.
In 1995, Fehr received his associate’s degree from Salt Lake Community College and transferred his credits to the U.
Since then, he has taken classes sporadically?some one semester, then none the next. During his “off time” Fehr works and spends time on his hobbies.
He describes his academic attendance as “pretty spotty” because of “academic frustrations” and “poor performance.”
As for the 2005 deadline for graduation under the quarter system, he said, “Maybe it will be good for me to have a deadline.”
However, he also believes a deadline can be bad for a lot of people.
“I can’t imagine them telling me, after all this time and work, that I can’t graduate,” he said. “What are they going to say to me? ‘You jumped through this hoop too long ago?’ That is ridiculous,” he said.
Meyer hopes all students will learn about the deadline and meet with advisers to plan a timely graduation.