By Kim Manahan (Whetstone Staff Writer)

A raise in academic standards may inspire third semester students to work harder.

Faculty recently voted to raise the grade point average (GPA) standards for academic probation.

When proposed to the faculty by the Academic Standing Committee, the changes were approved almost unanimously, said Dr. Patricia Dwyer, vice president of academic affairs.

“The probationary cutoff cumulative GPA for the first-semester sophomores was raised from 1.75 to 2.00,” Dwyer said. “This means that in order to be in ‘good academic standing,’ as opposed to being ‘on probation’ at the end of that semester, the student has to have a cumulative GPA of at least 2.00.”

Other students had been required to have a 2.00 at the end of each semester, except for their third semester.

“It really didn’t make sense for all other semesters to have a 2.00 cutoff,” said Dr. Angela D’Antonio, a member of the Academic Standing Committee. “We just made it across the board.”

It is now consistent, she said.

“Before the change, the probationary cutoff for freshmen was 2.00,” Dwyer said. “Then it lowered to 1.75 only for the first-semester sophomores — which didn’t make sense.”

The requirements for freshmen to remain at Wesley also have gone up.

Freshmen will have to maintain a higher GPA during their second semester.

Originally they would be suspended if their GPA was below a 1.50. They now have to maintain a 1.67.

“Moving up to a 1.67 is not much of an increase, but if you’re at risk, it may be a challenge,” D’Antonio said.

Students feel that this may cause their peers to work harder.

“It will make students focus more on what they go to college for,” said senior Tom Landry.  “It will separate the students that want to be here from those who don’t even care about being here.”

When students go on academic probation, they are informed and have to adhere to an academic recovery plan, D’Antonio said.

Parts of this plan include library hours and using the ARC, as well as registering and completing 12 credit hours and attending all class sessions.

“Hopefully, this will make [students] work harder to maintain better grades because no one wants to be forced to spend time in the ARC,” said freshman Jessica Barranco.

The current policies were reviewed and studied, as well as those at 17 peer and neighboring institutions to help make the decision, Dwyer said.

“We are the biggest class Wesley has ever had,” Barranco said. “So the school is probably just trying to maintain the excellence for which they want to be known.”