For’ many transfer students who want to’ graduate from UH with honors recognition,’ having to take unexpected courses is not uncommon.’
UH policy stipulates that transfer students without the adequate number of residential hours are required to take extra hours in order to graduate with honors.
In a 120-hour degree, 66 hours of residency are necessary to receive honors. For transfer students with 66 or more transfer credits, they would have to take extra courses at UH to receive honors.
Organizational leadership and supervision seniors Joshua Bush and Timothy Clark, both of whom intended to graduate with honors prior to discovering the rule, put together a petition to change the policy.
‘This petition is requesting that UH follow the current policy by taking the current UH hours and the most recently taken three to nine transfer hours,’ Bush said.
Clark said the current policy does not make sense and is unfair to transfer students, but what upset him most was that nobody told him about it.
‘Had they told any of us (during) any semester prior to graduation, we would have complied.’ Clark said. ‘They could take our 66 hours and they could take the consecutive nine completed hours, and base it with a waiver from someone from this University with the stroke of a pen and right a wrong.’
As it stands now, the policy forces transfer students to either spend thousands more on tuition or go without the recognition of graduating with honors, despite having an adequate GPA.
‘The honors requirement is based upon a degree plan that is much larger than we currently have,’ College of Technology associate professor Jerry Waite said. ‘The state has mandated that all degree plans be 120 hours. (Transfer students) end up having to take an additional semester or two of course work in order to get a degree with honors.’
Waite wrote a proposal to the Undergraduate Council supporting Bush and Clark’s petition, asking that the requirements be dropped to half the hours required on campus and half the hours required off campus.
‘This is completely unfair because it’s based on outdated degree plans,’ Waite said. ‘The other issue is of course that if a student takes extra hours in order to graduate with honors, they run up against the enrollment cap and have to start paying extra tuition.’
The College of Technology faculty unanimously approved the proposal, but the Undergraduate Council has not made a decision.
‘I do believe there are some faculty who believe that the 66-hour rule is appropriate, and that more than half of the hours should be done on this campus,’ Waite said. ‘But in my opinion, that negates the community colleges in our recruitment efforts for the University. It tells the community college student, ‘You’re not good enough.”
Undergraduate Council Chair Simon Bott said the proposal had not been sent to him, but once it was he would look at it and present it to the Undergraduate Council.
‘It hasn’t been officially forwarded to us yet,’ Bott said. ‘Once it has been, we will talk and deliberate on it. After we’ve been through it, we’ll send it to the Undergraduate Council.’
The Student Government Association passed a resolution Oct. 14 in support of the proposal, noting the significance of transfer students at UH.
‘Every student should know first that there is a policy, and the real reason why SGA has had to get involved is the fact that the students haven’t been told,’ College of Liberal Arts and Social Sciences Sen. Taylor Kilroy said. ‘Our official stance is that the hours on the degree plan should be reduced by half.’
