Academic Renewal is a process designed to facilitate a student’s completion of a degree or certificate program — and/or the student’s removal from academic probation or academic dismissal — by disregarding up to 30 semester units of the student’s previous coursework (pre-college-level English, ESL, and math coursework is excluded from the limitation of 30 semester units). The student must discuss his or her situation with a counselor and file a petition for academic renewal. Final approval of the petition will be granted by the Admissions Office. Academic renewal is irreversible.
To qualify for academic renewal, the student must meet the following criteria:
- The coursework to be disregarded is limited to classes where the student received a grade of D (1.0) or F (0.0) and did not subsequently complete the course with a C (2.0) or higher at SMC or at another institution; and
- The student’s performance is not reflective of the student’s demonstrated ability.
- The student has completed a minimum of 12 consecutive semester units with a grade of 2.0 at an institutionally accredited institution after having completed the coursework to be disregarded; units must be consecutive and must have begun any time after the coursework to be disregarded; and
- There must be a lapse of at least six (6) months since the student’s completion of the most recent coursework to be disregarded.
Academic renewal petitions for a given course may be submitted after degree, certificate, or general education (GE) certification were awarded to the student only if the course was not used to satisfy a requirement (e.g., major, general education).
All disregarded coursework will remain in the student’s permanent record, and the student’s transcripts will be annotated to make it readily evident that any disregarded course(s) may not be used to satisfy certificate, degree, or general education requirements.
Progress Renewal is a process designed to facilitate a student’s completion of a degree or certificate program — and/or the student’s removal from progress probation or progress dismissal — by disregarding up to a maximum of 30 semester units of the student’s previous coursework (pre-college- level English, ESL, and math coursework is excluded from the limitation of 30 semester units). The student must discuss his or her situation with a counselor and file a petition for progress renewal. Final approval of the petition will be granted by the Admissions Office. Progress renewal is irreversible.
To qualify for progress renewal, the student must meet the following criteria:
- The coursework to be disregarded is limited to classes where the student received a notation of W (Withdrawal) or NP (No Pass; formerly NC-No Credit); and
- The student’s performance is not reflective of the student’s demonstrated ability.
- The student has completed — without receiving a notation of NP (No Pass), NC (No Credit), W (Withdrawal), or I (Incomplete) — a minimum of 12 consecutive semester units with a grade of 2.0 at an institutionally accredited institution after having completed the coursework to be disregarded; units must be consecutive and must have begun any time after the coursework to be disregarded; any Withdrawal (“W”), Incomplete (“I”), No Credit (“NC”), or No Pass (“NP”) notation/grade received during this timeframe will make the student ineligible for progress renewal; and
- There must be a lapse of at least six (6) months since the student’s completion of the most recent coursework to be disregarded.
All disregarded coursework will remain in the student’s permanent record, and the student’s transcripts will be annotated to make it readily evident that any disregarded course(s) may not be used to satisfy certificate, degree, or general education requirements.