2008 Woodie Awards
Senior Audits Confusion May Prevent Graduation
Allison Walker
Issue date: 2/10/06 Section: News
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Senioritis-many students got it in high school and the same goes for college. After three years of the same cafeteria food, pulling all-nighters and pressing snooze, Hendrix seniors are ready to have their degree. But after receiving senior audits, many students at Hendrix are finding that the last semester of their senior year might not go the way they expected.
Senior politics major Cara Boyd said she received a senior audit informing her that she was one credit short for her major. After this semester she would have enough credits to graduate, but not enough for a major. A course Boyd took while studying in Oxford, England, during the first semester of her junior year is the source of the problem.
"My advisor and I thought one course that I took when I was studying in Oxford would count twice, for my major and for my minor," she said. "I had to pick up a fifth course this semester and pay $1,000 for it."
Jay Barth, associate politics professor, said the audit issue is a complicated one and a frustrating one for all involved. Student's coursework is filled with many moving parts and the shift on one course from one category to another (using a course as a major requirement rather than a minor requirement, etc.) means that everything else in the requirements also shifts.
"A course that previously had appeared to count for one requirement suddenly now counts for something else but no longer covers the requirement it previously had been covering. This does occasionally result in errors rather late in the game," he said.
According to Xinying Wang, director of institutional research, senior audits were originally sent out last August and the letters were copied to their advisors through e-mail. The audits are done manually, therefore they are very time consuming. Wang said she spends most of her summer working on audits.
"I hope that we will soon have the Advising Module or some kind of program in the system that we can use for audits, so that audits can be conducted more efficiently and accurately, and students and advisors can view graduation requirements through their Hendrix web account," she said.
Senior politics major Cara Boyd said she received a senior audit informing her that she was one credit short for her major. After this semester she would have enough credits to graduate, but not enough for a major. A course Boyd took while studying in Oxford, England, during the first semester of her junior year is the source of the problem.
"My advisor and I thought one course that I took when I was studying in Oxford would count twice, for my major and for my minor," she said. "I had to pick up a fifth course this semester and pay $1,000 for it."
Jay Barth, associate politics professor, said the audit issue is a complicated one and a frustrating one for all involved. Student's coursework is filled with many moving parts and the shift on one course from one category to another (using a course as a major requirement rather than a minor requirement, etc.) means that everything else in the requirements also shifts.
"A course that previously had appeared to count for one requirement suddenly now counts for something else but no longer covers the requirement it previously had been covering. This does occasionally result in errors rather late in the game," he said.
According to Xinying Wang, director of institutional research, senior audits were originally sent out last August and the letters were copied to their advisors through e-mail. The audits are done manually, therefore they are very time consuming. Wang said she spends most of her summer working on audits.
"I hope that we will soon have the Advising Module or some kind of program in the system that we can use for audits, so that audits can be conducted more efficiently and accurately, and students and advisors can view graduation requirements through their Hendrix web account," she said.