Graduation application blues

Senior Courtney Frost thought she had completed her graduation requirements until she received her graduation application evaluation during spring quarter registration.

"I was pretty sure I kept track of all my classes," said Frost.

Instead of taking 18 credits this quarter like she had planned, Frost had to add another course to graduate in June; she's taking 22 credits.

"I was stuck with classes that I didn't know I had to take; I had to squeeze [classes] into my spring schedule or [it's] like my high school transcript didn't follow through," she said, which meant her foreign language requirement wasn't met.

During a time when seniors think about their future, many find themselves cramming their schedules to fit in classes they didn't know they needed. They didn't receive their reviews until the middle or end of winter quarter. That's because there's only one person looking over thousands of applications.

In an e-mail interview, Graduation Evaluator Dale Smith said she receives about 1,000 spring graduation applications compared to about 350 to 400 applications for the other quarters and "keeping up with the increasing workload has been a challenge."

"In the early '90s there were two evaluators, but because of enrollment and budget cuts one of the positions was eliminated," she said.

Smith takes 10 to 20 minutes to evaluate each form and even longer when students inquire about their application status. "So every winter, I close my office and limit my 'walk-in' office hours. Otherwise, I would not be able to finish all the spring applications before spring quarter starts," she said.

The process is done neither alphabetically nor chronologically so students whose names begin with letters at opposite ends of the alphabet may receive their review at the same time. "I skip around the alphabet to make the process fair to the people with names at the end of the alphabet," said Smith.

Senior Leann Papenfuss received her evaluation about three weeks before winter quarter ended, but fortunately it didn't affect her graduation date in the fall.

"When I got my paper back it said that I still have 15 credits of stuff that I needed to do and I knew that, but if I didn't know that, then it probably would have screwed me over," she said.

Papenfuss said she feels the process can be done differently. "What I don't like about the graduation application thing is that you have to fill out the classes you plan on taking and then if you don't take those classes you have to e-mail her and be like, 'I'm not taking these classes so can I still graduate?,' and she's got to review it and all that stuff."

Actually, according to Smith, the university has been working to get a Degree Audit Reporting System that would not only speed up the process, but eliminate the need for a second evaluator.

"I am anxious to have that tool and hope it will help process students' evaluations more efficiently and help with student advising in general," said Smith.

For now, she has finished evaluating the spring applications and will begin evaluating summer applications.

Smith said she unfairly becomes the "bad guy" when it comes to telling students about their missing requirements.

"My philosophy on graduation requirements is that every student should know what they need before they get my evaluation. Unfortunately, many students are not being proactive in knowing the university's requirements for a degree and just focus on their major." Students are encouraged to look at their course catalogs.

"One of the main problems I see is that students are not aware of the minimum credit requirements, which are 180 total credits, 60 of which need to be upper division," said Smith.

Students can also go to the Academic Appeals Board for "petitions for waivers or substitutions of certain graduation requirements. However, unless there is a documented advising error the petition may not pass."

Smith asks for students to patiently wait for their review. "If you haven't got the evaluation by the beginning of your last quarter, then you can check with me," she said. "Otherwise, please don't call me to ask about the status of your particular application. I will get the work done in as timely a manner as possible."

Smith admits to making mistakes due to "rushing" or being "unaware of a new course added to a list."

"I take criticism well, so feel free to call me on it," she said.

For questions call Dale Smith at (509) 359-6580 or e-mail her at dhsmith@ewu.edu.