The Vista April 4, 1995

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University of Central Oklahoma

TUESDAY April 4, 1995

The Student Voice Since 1903

Greek Week

Students now have option of `canceling' a semester of grades

Clothes are donated by Gayle Klose, right, at the Delta Zeta clothes drive at Centennial Square Friday afternoon. Participating in the drive are UCO students, from left, Amy Mohnkern, Pele Tankaersley, Gayla Dolan and Wendi Dawkins. (Staff Photo by John Gilmore)

By Kelley Beard Student Writer Thanks to a new policy called "academic reprieves," students can cancel any one semester or any two consecutive semesters from their transcripts. The reprieve removes entire semester grades, which results in an increase in a student's grade point average (GPA). This policy was approved by the State Board of Regents as an optional policy universities could offer, said Paul Patrick, director of academic records. According to Patrick, a consecutive semester is defined as two back-toback, but not necessarily consecutive, calendar years. If a student wants to reprieve fall 1989 and fall 1991 and had no work in between, this would be considered consecutive, he said. Students must meet the following criteria in order to have the courses reprieved. -At least three years must have elapsed between the period in which grades requested for reprieve were earned and when the reprieve was requested. •The student must have maintained at least a "C" and a minimum of 12 hours,

V See Related Story, Page 5

Teacher evaluations: By Kelley Beard Student Writer Students are asked to fill out instructor evaluations each semester. But what good do these surveys really do? "The original policy for evaluating faculty by students states, 'every faculty member would be evaluated but not every semester, — said Dr. Michael Shirley, assistant dean of the College of Business. According to the policy, adjunct (part-time) instructors are evaluated every semester and full-time instructors are on a rotation basis. The Office of Academic Affairs retains a list of faculty members on rotation and provides a list each semester of who is to be evaluated, said Sharon Lowery, secretary to Dr.

Letters 2 World Wrap 6 Around Campus 15 Sports 12-13 Comics 15

Judith Coe, assistant dean. If a faculty member is not on the rotation list for a particular semester but wants to be evaluated, they always have the option to ask for an evaluation packet, she said. After students fill out the survey, the form is sent to the Testing and Correspondence office for analysis. The results of the analysis are returned to the dean of each college, the department chairperson and the evaluated instructor. After the semester ends, the written comments are reviewed by the chairperson of each college and the instructor who was evaluated, Lowery said. The results of the evaluation are used to help determine reappointment and tenure track appointments of a faculty member, said Dr.

A student fills out a teacher evaluation form (Staff Photo by Christopher Smith) Terry Clark, journalism chairman. The written comments help the faculty, Shirley said. "They make me a better teacher."

CREATE to link 12 schools, curriculums via fiber-optics

V See GRADES, Page 10

Editorial 2

Where do they go and ho w important are they?

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Come summer, students at UCO will be able to participate in an interactive exchange of information via state-of-the-art fiber optic technology. This will be made possible through the CREATE program, which stands for

SPOTLIGHT Student Julia Self will graduate this semester after her award-winning streak at UCO.

Consortium to Restructure Education through Academic and Technological Excellence. The project is the combined effort of 12 institutions—UCO, Francis Tuttle Vo-Tech Center, Oklahoma City Community College (OCCC) and nine high schools.

"This (the program) will smoothen the transition one makes from high school to junior college to senior college and perhaps to the (vo-tech) center," said Linda Norton, director of continuing education at UCO.

VSee CREATE, Page 10

N SIDE . TODAY

SPORTS

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Bzh split eons nis duals last Thursday, men gained the win and women fell to defeat.

MUSIC Staff writer John Clanton reviews new music releases this week, including a fun album for children.

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