New Pass/D/Fail Policy in Place

The 2007-2008 school year will kick off with a new pass/D/fail policy, a new creative writing major, and possible changes to academic advising.

The old pass/fail policy lists any letter grade above an "F" as "pass." The new policy, taking effect in the upcoming fall semester, will allow students in Columbia College who earn a "pass" to find out the letter grade that they earned. They will then have the option to have that grade recorded on their transcript instead of the "P." A grade of "D" will no longer be a passing grade and will be printed on the transcript as is.

Presenting before the Committee on Instruction in November 2006, Neda Navab, CC '08 and junior class president, David Ali, CC '07 and University senator, and Alidad Damooei, CC '09 and vice president of academic affairs, explained that the new policy would permit students to take courses outside their usual fields of study without being bogged down by anxiety about grades. They said that this would provide incentive for students to do well in classes that they elect to take pass/fail. Although Navab, Ali, and Damooei said they did not support the "D" portion of the pass/fail policy, the COI considered this rule to be commensurate with new policy's goals.

The creative writing major, which will replace the School of General Studies' literature-writing major, will mark the first time that students in Columbia College can major in creative writing. In the past, offerings have been limited to an 18-credit special program.

Seminars and workshops in fiction, poetry, and non-fiction will be added to the former concentration's list of courses-most of which are available to students who are majoring in creative writing as well as those who aren't.

Collaboration among student councils, administration, trustees, and advisers have led to the changes being considered for the academic advising system. Reforms, if enacted, would replace the First-Year Sophomore Academic Advising Center and Junior Senior Academic Advising Center with a central advising office sometime within the next three years. In addition, the changes call for increasing the number of advisers and having students remain with a single adviser throughout all their undergraduate years.

Columbia's department of Spanish and Portuguese and Barnard's department of Spanish and Latin American cultures willl shift their focus from language and literature to cultural studies beginning in the coming academic year. Students majoring in these fields can choose between Hispanic studies with or without specialization in another discipline on the side.

Also next year, the Middle East and Asian languages and cultures department will adopt African studies. The department has also appointed Mamadou Diouf as the new director for the Institute for African Studies.