The UH Undergraduate Council unanimously voted in favor of a resolution to reduce the hours required to graduate with honors at a meeting Wednesday.
The resolution was passed at the Academic Policies and Procedures Subcommittee on Oct. 21 before it was’ presented to the Undergraduate Council.
‘The primary justification for this was so that transfer students would still be able to bring in their maximum number of hours yet still graduate with an ‘honored’ UH degree,’ Subcommittee Chair Simon Bott said in a report.
The specifics of the most recent resolution suggest that honors graduation require 54 credit hours completed at UH, and suggest altering the grade-point average requirement from 3.25, 3.50 and’ 3.75 for cum laude, magna cum laude and summa cum laude, respectively, to 3.50, 3.70 and’ 3.90.
‘I’m extremely pleased at the outcome,’ organizational leadership and supervision senior Joshua Bush said. ‘I know when we originally held our plea at the subcommittee it was a unanimous vote. I just think that the dedication that has been given for the past eight weeks has paid off, at least for the future.’
Bush, along with other transfer students graduating this year, intended to graduate with honors until discovering that in order to receive honors in a 120-hour degree plan, 66 hours of residency are necessary.
Even after garnering the support of the Undergraduate Council, the resolution still has a lot of distance to cover before a change is officially implemented.
‘This will go to (Executive Associate Vice President for Academic and Faculty Affairs) Dr. (Elaine) Charlson, which will then go to the provost,’ Undergraduate Council Chair Lawrence Williams said. ‘Before they even see it at the provost level, it will go to the University Coordinating Commission. This is a policy that affects the whole University, and (the) UCC is a body that makes sure all the stake holders get a say.’
Transfer seniors are still interested in generating awareness, however.
‘My goal right now is to congregate as many people that are in the same situation as I am to petition to the provost ‘hellip; to see whether or not we will fall under the new set of rules,’ Bush said.
Bott said students need to make sure they are fully aware of their graduation plans and the requirements thereof.
‘There is never a replacement for seeing an adviser and asking the right questions,’ Bott said. ‘The big thing with all of this was what we heard from the students who came up with (the petition). They didn’t fully understand what was happening when they went in.’
