Students with bad grades target of proposal by senate committee

University Faculty Senate Chair Scott Kretchmar said he was pleased to present the University's first Rhodes Scholar to the fifth senate meeting of the 1996-97 school year.

"I have the pleasure of doing something no other Penn State senate president has had before," he said, before introducing Rhodes Scholar Tess Thompson (senior-English) to the group.

Thompson, who Kretchmar said represents the epitome of academic excellence, spoke briefly to the senate. Although she is looking forward to her academic career at Oxford University in England, Thompson said, she will never forget to look back on her years at the University.

"I think the undergraduate education I've gotten at Penn State has prepared me (for Oxford), she said.

After Thompson spoke, the senate's agenda turned to business as usual, beginning with legislation from the Committee on Admissions, Records, Scheduling and Student Aid.

Committee Chair Leonard Berkowitz introduced the proposal to make it more difficult for students to drop out of the University in the last two weeks of classes because of bad grades and re-enroll immediately the following semester.

"Unfortunately not all students perform the way Tess has," he said.

The problem of students dropping out and re-enrolling is primarily a University Park problem, Berkowitz said. During Fall Semester 1996, 753 students dropped out, he said. Of the 358 students who dropped out within the last two weeks of classes, he added, 203 re-enrolled immediately for the Spring 1997 semester.

The committee wants the policy -- which states a student must obtain permission from the dean of the college for re-enrollment if he or she did not leave the University in good academic standing -- to include the specification of students withdrawing during the last two weeks of classes.

The legislation was not passed and was sent back to the committee because some senators agreed the proposal was too vague and did not specify grounds for denial of re-enrollment.