Academic Policies
Academic Appeals
A student who has been dismissed can appeal the dismissal to the Academic Review Board, or equivalent structure within each college, through the dean of his or her college and request reinstatement. Dismissed students have the option to appeal if they believe their academic deficiencies are due to extenuating circumstances or computational errors in calculating their GPA or academic progress. The appeal should include some reflection on the cause of the poor performance, documentation of any extenuating circumstances, and a plan of action for improving performance if the student is admitted back into the University. The appeal and all supporting documentation of the appeal must be presented within fourteen (14) days after receipt of the formal dismissal letter. The Academic Review Board or equivalent structure will make a recommendation to the dean of their college in a timely fashion. The dean of the college will then make a final decision on the appeal. This concludes the appeal process.
Academic Forgiveness
A student who has successfully repeated a failed course and wants to make an adjustment to his or her transcript must submit the Repeated Course Request form to the Registrar’s Office.
If an F grade was the result of a violation of the University’s policy on academic integrity, the grade is not subject to forgiveness. That is, the grade will remain in the computation of the grade point average (GPA). If the Repeated Course Request is approved, only the more recent of the two grades will be counted in the computation of the grade point average (GPA). The original grade, however, will be kept on the transcript. This policy is limited to two repeats during the student’s undergraduate study.
A student who has not been in attendance at Sacred Heart University for five years or more may apply for academic forgiveness of grades for courses taken at Sacred Heart during one problem semester—defined as one in which the student’s term GPA was lower than 2.0. Prior to a written filing for academic forgiveness, the student must complete 12 total credits over a two- semester period at Sacred Heart University, with a cumulative average of at least 3.0 in these courses. Upon the successful completion of the 12-credit requirement, the student submits a formal written request for academic forgiveness to the Dean of the College in which the student is currently enrolled or intends to enroll. The student’s written request should provide detailed information regarding the kinds of problems that the student experienced during the period for which forgiveness is requested, how those problems have been remedied, and why the University should consider forgiveness in his or her case. The Dean will make the decision whether to grant forgiveness. Academic forgiveness means that the grades from the problem semester remain visible on the student’s transcript, but those grades are not calculated in the student’s overall GPA. Forgiveness will affect the entire semester and not individual courses within a semester.
In the case of a student who chooses to repeat a course in which they received a passing grade for a better grade, the best grade will count in the cumulative grade point average. The original grade will remain on the transcript. Repeated courses will count for credit only once.