2002-2003 UAF Catalog

Undergraduate


How to Register

Registration

You must register and pay your fees to attend classes and earn credit. Registration is held for each semester on dates published in the academic calendar. For special programs, short courses, seminars and other classes that aren't part of the regular academic calendar, registration is held as needed.

Placement Tests

Results from American College Testing Program (ACT) or the Scholastic Aptitude Test (SAT) tests, or, for associate degree or certificate students, the ASSET or COMPASS test, are required if you're a first-time degree or certificate student, a transfer student with less than 30 acceptable credits, or planning to take 100-level written communication or mathematics courses. The test results must be on file with the Office of Admissions before you can register. Contact the UAF Testing Office for further information.

Academic Advising

To determine the best options, alternatives and sequences of classes to take, you should discuss your course selections early with your advisor (all degree and certificate students are required to have an advisor). Your advisor's signature is needed to enter the registration process. Non-degree students may also see an advisor, and it is recommended for those taking 9 or more credits in a semester or for those who have accumulated 30 or more UAF credits.

Course Prerequisites

Course prerequisites indicate the preparation that you must have to enter a course. Instructors may drop students from the course who don't meet course prerequisites. If you haven't taken the prerequisites, the instructor may grant you permission to enter a class under special circumstances.

Credit-No-Credit Option

The credit-no-credit option encourages you to explore areas of interest not necessarily related to your major. You may elect the credit-no-credit option for one undesignated elective each semester. The last day you may elect the credit-no-credit option is the third Friday after the first day of instruction for the semester. The instructor doesn't know your status in the course, and you complete the course the same way as other students in the class. Credit for the course is awarded if your performance is at the C grade or higher; if your performance falls below that level, the course will not be recorded on your academic record. In either case, the course won't be included in any GPA calculations and, if credit is granted, a CR grade will be entered for the course.

Undesignated elective courses or courses taken to meet the minimum credit requirements for the degree may be taken under this option. Major or minor requirements and those specified as foundation courses aren't allowed under this option.

Auditing

If you want to enroll in one or more courses for informational purposes only, you may register as an auditor if there is space in the class. You pay the standard credit fees for the course, but the credits are not included in the computation of study load for full-time/part-time determination or for overload status.

The requirement, acceptance and review of work and lab privileges are at the discretion of the instructor. No grades are given, no credit is awarded and audited courses don't apply toward degree requirements, nor will they transfer to other institutions.

If you want to audit a course, you should indicate that at registration on your registration form. If you want to change from audit to credit, you must request that before the deadline to add a course; changing from credit to audit made following the third Friday after the first day of instruction must be approved by the instructor of the course. All changes must be made before the deadline for student-initiated withdrawals.

Instructors set the requirements under which an AU is to be recorded and submit, at the end of the semester, a grade of AU for auditors who satisfy the requirements. Auditors not receiving an AU grade receive a W grade. If you've audited a class, you can't request local credit by examination for that class for one year.

Adding, Dropping and Withdrawing from Classes

If you wish to add, drop or withdraw from a class, you will need to follow the add/drop procedure. After the last day of late registration, your academic advisor must sign the appropriate form for either an add or drop unless you are a non-degree student. Instructors' signatures aren't required for a drop or withdrawal, and the instructor will be notified of your drop or withdrawal by the Registrar's Office. Information about the add/drop process can be found in the current class schedule or from the Registrar's Office. Adds, drops and withdrawals are not final until you have completed the appropriate procedure, paid any additional fees that are due and turned in all completed paperwork, if necessary, to the Registrar's Office.

Adding a Class

You may add classes to your schedule until the end of the published late registration period. If you are on a wait list for a class and have kept up with class activity, as vacancies occur you may be allowed to register for the class until the fourth Friday after the first day of instruction with instructor approval.

Dropping a Class

You may drop a class through the third Friday after the first day of instruction. Dropped classes don't appear on your academic record.

Registration Drop Policy

You're expected to begin attending classes on the first day of instruction. In order to identify potentially available spaces in courses, departments may require that you attend the first class session or notify the department in advance that you can't attend the first class. If you miss the first class without notifying the department, you may be dropped from the course and the space assigned to a student on the waiting list.

At the Fairbanks campus, the class schedule provides information on which courses use the registration drop policy. After the first class session, lists of the names of the students who are to be dropped from classes are forwarded by the department head to the Registrar's Office so the courses can be removed from the students' enrollment files.

Because of the high demand for these courses, if you don't attend the first two meetings of a composition course (ENGL 111X, 211X, 213X, 313 or 414) or the first two meetings of a basic speech course (COMM 131X or 141X), you will be dropped from the class even if you registered in advance and paid your fees. If space becomes available in a class from which you have been dropped by the department, you will have to follow the add/drop procedure to add the course.

Withdrawing from a Class

If you withdraw from a class after the third Friday after the first day of instruction, a grade of W will appear on your academic record. The W grade does not affect your GPA. The last day you can withdraw from a class is the ninth Friday after the first day of instruction. The specific dates are published in the official university calendar in the front of this catalog.

Faculty-initiated Withdrawal

If you do not meet the prerequisites for a course in which you have enrolled or if you have not participated substantially in the course, the faculty member teaching that course has the right to drop you from the class by the ninth Friday after the first day of instruction, and a grade of W will appear on your academic record. Faculty-initiated withdrawals submitted through the third Friday after the first day of instruction will be treated as a dropped class and will not appear on any transcript of your academic record.

Withdrawing from All of your Classes

You will need to obtain a total withdrawal form from the Office of the Registrar if you want to withdraw from all of your classes. A student-initiated total withdrawal is subject to the same deadlines as withdrawal from a class (see above).

Withdrawing after the Student-initiated Deadlines

After the last day for student-initiated withdrawals, late withdrawals are allowed for exceptional cases only and approval is not automatic. You'll need to provide evidence to support your request for a withdrawal. Acceptable reasons might include documented family emergency, major employment change, documented medical condition or other non-academic reasons such as disciplinary sanctions. Escaping an unsatisfactory grade is not an acceptable reason for seeking a late withdrawal.

Late Withdrawal from a Class

To support your request to drop a class after the deadline, the dean of the college or school in which the class is offered will need to have documentation from you concerning your reasons for withdrawing. You'll also need to obtain an Add/Drop form from the Registrar's Office and have the class instructor, department head and your advisor sign the form before presenting it to the dean.

Late Withdrawal from All of your Classes

To withdraw from all of your classes, pick up a total withdrawal form from the Registrar's Office and obtain your advisor's signature on that form before seeing the dean of the college or school in which your major is located. You'll need to present documentation to your dean supporting your reasons for withdrawing. The process to appeal the dean's decision concerning a request for a dean-initiated withdrawal is the Chancellor's Office and then the Fairbanks Grievance Council.

Changing from Credit to Audit

You may change from a credit enrollment in a class to audit status by following the add/drop process. Following the third Friday after the first day of instruction, all registrations for audit, including changes from credit to audit, must be approved by the instructor of the course being audited. You may not change from credit to audit after the last day for student-initiated withdrawals.

Registration Changes

Undergraduate Students

Action Begins* Ends Remarks
Adding a class First day of registration for the semester Second Friday after the first day of instruction for the semester Advisor's signature required for student in degree program, unless change is made using the telephone registration system
Dropping a class (class does not appear on transcript) First day of registration for the semester Third Friday after the first day of instruction for the semester Advisor's signature required for student in degree program, unless change is made using the telephone registration system
Withdrawing from a class (class appears on transcript with W grade) After the third Friday after the first day of instruction for the semester Ninth Friday after the first day of instruction Advisor's signature required for student in degree program
Dropping or withdrawing from all of your classes First day of registration for the semester Ninth Friday after the first day of instruction Faculty member will notify the Registrar's Office
Faculty-initiated drop (class does not appear on transcript) First day of instruction for the semester Third Friday after the first day of instruction for the semester Faculty member will notify the Registrar's Office
Faculty-initiated withdrawal (class appears on transcript with W grade) After the third Friday after the first day of instruction for the semester Ninth Friday after the first day of instruction for the semester Advisor's signature required for student in degree program; class instructor, department head and dean's signature required for all students
Late withdrawal from a class** After the last day for student-initiated withdrawals Last day of instruction for the semester Advisor's signature required for student in degree program; class instructor, department head and dean1s signature required for all students
Late withdrawal from all of your classes After the last day for student-initiated withdrawals Last day of instruction for the semester Must be initiated by the dean of the college or school in which the student is majoring or by the dean of student services for undeclared majors or non-degree students
Credit-no-credit option First day of registration for the semester Third Friday after the first day of instruction for the semester Only free electives may be taken under this option
Add/drop forms (if necessary), total withdrawal forms and credit-no-credit forms must be submitted to the Registrar's Office by the appropriate deadlines.

* The first day of instruction for all semester-length courses is the date indicated as the first day of instruction in the official semester academic calendar. It may not be the first day that a class meets. Add, drop, withdrawal and credit-no-credit option deadlines will be adjusted proportionally for courses that are less than a semester in length.

** Late withdrawals are allowed for exceptional cases only and approval is not automatic.