Five percent of students enrolled at Texas A&M University-Commerce recorded a zero grade point average during the Fall 2006 semester. The official count was 252 undergraduate students out of an approximate 5000, according to Dr. Mary Hendrix, Vice-President for Academic & Student Affairs.
The data collected has prompted immediate action by the administration in how the university evaluates its standards.
“I don’t know that is has ever been this high–this is the first time that I’m aware of that we’ve ever asked for the data to take a look,” Hendrix said of the numbers.
Hendrix said the university is going to take a look at specific patterns, including incoming freshman and transfer students to see if that played a key role with the low grades.
“Our institution is going to raise expectations and higher standards for students,” Hendrix said. “Dr. Ashley has indicated that if a student has a 0.00 average, he or she is not attending classes and attempting to complete the work.”
Part of the raised expectations will be a new academic probation policy for students who fail to reach a GPA over zero. With this policy, a student would not be given the current semester probationary period, instead immediate suspension from A&M-Commerce.
“The university will be reviewing all procedures to make certain we have high expectations for students,” Hendrix said.
Hendrix said the university is looking into adopting a new drop policy, most likely restricting the number of drops a student can have throughout a college career.
“If you set expectations, typically people will rise to those expectations,” Hendrix said. “We want to establish procedures and practices that will help students make wise decisions.”