2003-2004 UAF Catalog
Graduate
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 (see the inside front cover). For special programs, short courses, seminars and other classes that aren't part of the regular academic calendar, registration is held as needed.
As a graduate student, you must be registered for a minimum of six graduate credits per academic year (fall, spring, summer) while actively working toward a degree. If you fail to either register for at least six graduate credits or obtain a leave of absence, you will be dropped from graduate study and will have to apply for reinstatement before resuming graduate study.
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 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.
Course prerequisites indicate the previous preparation that a student must have in order to enter a course. An instructor has the right to drop from the course any student not meeting the course prerequisites. Permission of the instructor to enter a class may be granted to a student not meeting prerequisites under special circumstances.
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, you'll need to follow the in person drop/add process. 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 may 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.
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.
You may drop a class through the third Friday after the first day of instruction. Dropped classes don't appear on your academic record.
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 Office of the Registrar so the course can be removed from the students' enrollment files. 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.
If you withdraw from a class after the third Friday of the semester, 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. For specific dates see the academic calendar (on the inside front cover of this catalog).
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).
Faculty-initiated Drop or 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 a transcript of your academic record.
Withdrawing after the Student-initiated Deadline
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 a 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.
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 Office of the Registrar 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
If you need to withdraw from all of your classes, pick up a total withdrawal form from the Office of the Registrar 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.
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: Graduate 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 | |
| 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 | |
| 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 for the semester | |
| Dropping or withdrawing from all of your classes | First day of registration for the semester | Fourth Friday after the first day of instruction for the semester | Total withdrawal form must be completed |
| 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 | Faculty member will notify the Registrar's Office |
| 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 dean's 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 |
| Add/drop forms, 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. | |||