Academic Advisor/Faculty Mentor: The student’s primary contact person. All students are assigned an academic advisor and/or faculty mentor, and all students must meet with that person before being activated to register each semester. The advisor’s name is found in GullNet in the Student Center.
Academic Probation: The academic status of students who have below a 2.0 cumulative GPA. Students who are placed on academic probation receive extra outreach from the Academic Advising Center and the Center for Student Achievement.
Alerts: Within the Navigate platform, an opportunity for faculty to provide academic concerns or kudos about any student throughout the semester.
Apostille: An apostille certifies the signature and the position of the official who has executed, issued, or certified a copy of a document.
Catalog (Undergraduate and Graduate): The online document that outlines academic policies, university requirements, undergraduate and graduate curriculum, and course descriptions. Students are governed by the catalog that was current at the time that they enrolled at SU.
Catalog Year: Each student’s Academic Requirements Report (a.k.a.: Graduation Audit) is linked to a catalog year. Students are required to fulfill all general education, major, minor, and university requirements that were active in that catalog year. If students change catalog years due to adding a newly created major, program, minor, and/or track/concentration, they are then required to fulfill the requirements listed in that new catalog.
Corequisite: A course that must be taken at the same time as another course. If a course has a corequisite, it will be noted in the course description in the catalog and in GullNet.
Course Load: The number of credits a student takes in a given term. To be considered full time, during fall and spring semesters you must be enrolled for:
12 credit hours (undergraduate students)
9 credit hours (graduate students)
6 credit hours (graduate students with graduate assistantship
Concentration/Track: A subset of classes within some majors that allow an opportunity for students to focus on a specific topic within the major.
Credit Hour: The unit used to indicate how much credit a class is worth. One credit hour is typically equal to one hour of instruction per week for a 15-week semester. Most courses are worth 3 or 4 credits.
Dean’s List: Compiled and issued after each fall and spring semester by the school deans’ offices. To be eligible, a matriculated student must have at least 12 semester hours with letters grades of A, B or C (no incomplete or pass/fail grades) with a GPA average of 3.5 or higher for the semester.
Drop/Add Period: A timeframe at the beginning of each term where students can add, drop, or swap classes without the changes appearing on their transcripts or affecting their GPAs.
Elective Credit: Credit hours/courses that are not part of the student’s major or minor requirements. They can be applied to the overall credit count required for graduation.
FERPA (Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act of 1974): A federal law that specifies the rights of students regarding their educational records and their right to privacy.
FERPA Release of Information: An electronic form, available in GullNet, that allows students to give permission for other individuals to access academic, billing, financial aid, grades, and/or conduct information about the student.
FERPA Release of Information (Parent Portal): Requests are made by parents via the Family Experience Portal to the student for permission to view access to academic (grades/schedules), billing, and financial aid information about the student.
FERPA Restrict Directory Information: An electronic form, available in GullNet, that students complete if they would like to restrict the university from releasing information about them that is exempt from FERPA.
General Education: A set of courses in a variety of disciplines that help build a foundation for success in the major and provide a breadth of knowledge in a variety of areas.
GPA (Grade Point Average): A number that represents the average value of the final grades that students have earned in all their courses throughout their time at SU. Transfer grades do not impact SU’s GPA. The highest GPA a student can earn at SU is a 4.0.
GullNet: The online portal where students can see their schedules, check their grades, manage billing and financial aid matters, register for classes, withdraw from classes, etc.
Major: The primary academic discipline that an undergraduate student chooses to study. Each major requires a specific number of classes and credits. All students must have a major.
Mid-Semester Grades: A notice given halfway through the semester to students who are earning a D or an F in any of their courses. Not all faculty participate in recording mid-semester grade reporting.
Minor: A field of study that students can choose as a secondary discipline. Minors require fewer credits than majors. While optional for most, a number of majors require that students also choose a minor.
MyClasses: MyClasses is the campus supported learning management system for online, hybrid and traditional courses. MyClasses operates using Canvas. Student enrollment for the current semester and session is updated every four hours. Student enrollment to courses occurs one month prior to the semester start date. Accounts in MyClasses are created through course enrollment.
Navigate: Navigate aims to improve communication, streamline student outreach efforts, and provide data-driven insight with the goal of improving retention and graduation rates at SU. The platform provides analytic insights specific to student academic performance, offers a centralized note system for advising and support services, and serves as a scheduling tool for academic advising, faculty office hours and more.
Non-Degree: Students who are not in a degree-seeking program. Registration is limited to eight credit hours.
Open Enrollment: Open enrollment starts mid-July for fall semester and mid-January for spring semester. All current students will have access to register and make changes to their class schedule.
Students are not required to meet with their advisor to participate in open enrollment.
Registration takes place starting at 12:01 a.m. via GullNet during open enrollment. Please review the Registrar’s Calendar for the specific dates in July and January.
Overload: An undergraduate student taking more than 19 credits in one semester. Students must follow the procedure outlined in the catalog to obtain permission to take more than 19 credits in a semester.
Prerequisite: A course that must be successfully completed prior to taking another course. Not all courses have prerequisites. If a course has a prerequisite, it will be noted in the course description in the catalog and in GullNet.
Program Planning: Designated times before the middle of the fall and spring semesters when you meet with your Academic Advisor, Faculty Mentor, or Program Director to review your degree requirements, discuss course options, academic goals, and experiential learning opportunities.
Progress Reports: Within the Navigate platform, an opportunity for faculty to provide academic concerns or kudos about new students after the third week of classes.
Provost: A college or university provost is the chief academic officer for the institution. The Office of the Provost oversees all academic matters, including faculty concerns.
Request to Study at Another Institution: A form that must be completed and submitted to the Registrar’s Office before current SU students can take courses at another institution. It provides the student with information on if and how the course will transfer to SU.
Quality Points: Letter grades are assigned a number that is used to calculate an undergraduate student’s GPA: A=4, B=3, C=2, D=1, and F, WF, FX= 0. For graduate students the quality point numbers are: A=4.0, B+=3.5, B=3.0, C+=2.5, C=2.0, D=1.0, and F/WF=0.0.
Registrar: The University Registrar is the official responsible for maintaining all student records at SU as well as to ensure that all records are kept confidential (see FERPA).
Restricted Status: The academic status of students who have been dismissed as degree-seeking students due to unsatisfactory academic progress. Restricted status students are allowed to enroll as non-degree students but are limited to enrolling in eight credits a semester.
Sea Gull Scheduler: A tool provided by the Academic Advising Center to assist students in optimizing their course schedules.
Syllabus: A document that outlines the learning objectives, policies, assignments, and schedule for each course.
Transcript: A record of all courses that a student attempted, and the grade earned in each course.
Withdraw: When a student chooses to discontinue a class after the drop/add period but before the withdrawal deadline. Students earn a grade of W which does not affect their GPA.
