Scope

The Fresh Start policy encourages capable, undergraduate students to return to IU  Bloomington by removing the encumbrance of past poor grades on their cumulative program GPA, after these students have demonstrated their preparedness for academic success on renewed enrollment after an absence of at least three years.

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Policy Statement

I. Summary of Policy
The Fresh Start Policy provides undergraduate students returning to Indiana University Bloomington on a comparable GPA platform as transfer students, whereby prior work may count towards degree requirements but is not included in calculation of the cumulative Program GPA. Under the policy all grades, credits, and courses remain on the transcript but an adjustment is applied to the academic record to remove the GPA points/values from the cumulative Program GPA for all prior IU coursework.

Credit for any prior IU coursework completed with grades of C or better, including credit taken as a non-degree student, will continue to count towards degree and/or program requirements and credit for any prior IU completed coursework satisfying
general education requirements will continue to count towards general education requirements. Thus, students will begin their post-Fresh Start academic record with a Program GPA of 0.0.

II. Eligibility
Students may apply to invoke the Fresh Start policy if they meet both of the following criteria: (1) they are pursuing their first baccalaureate degree, and (2) they have not been enrolled in any IU campus for 36 or more consecutive months (3 years),.

Students who left Indiana University in less-than-good academic standing, e.g. academic probation or dismissal, are eligible for application of the Fresh Start policy if they are determined eligible for readmission to Indiana University.

All IU-B undergraduate students who meet the criteria, regardless of the unit of enrollment, are eligible to apply for Fresh Start.

III. Application
Students must make application for Fresh Start by the last day of classes in their first term of enrollment after the 36+-month hiatus. This date is published and available online in the enrollment bulletin.

IV. Conditions
The policy includes the following eight conditions that establish its limitations: (1) Notations for academic probation, critical probation, academic suspension, and/or academic dismissal from prior terms of enrollment will remain on the academic record, but will not be applied in determining a student’s academic standing following the application of the Fresh Start policy. Only grades and credits earned after the application of the Fresh Start re-enrollment will be used in determining academic standing; (2) Grades awarded based on a violation of the Academic Ethics policy will not be removed from the Program GPA calculation by application of Fresh Start.; (3) Once awarded, students will not be eligible to use the Extended-X, or any other, grade replacement policy.; (4) Students may apply Fresh Start only once. Once applied, it may not be revoked by the student.; (5) The policy will apply to all terms of IU enrollment, regardless of the campus on which the courses were completed, for purposes of determining Bloomington degree progress and completion.; (6) To earn an IU-B degree, students must earn a minimum of thirty (30) degree-applicable credit hours on the IU-B campus after the application of Fresh Start.; (7) Students receiving a similar academic forgiveness application on another Indiana University campus are not eligible for IU-B Fresh Start.; (8) Students receiving IU-B Fresh Start who subsequently become degree-seeking students on another IU campus are subject to the policies in effect for the IU campus from which they receive their degree.

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Policy Summary

The Fresh Start policy is intended to facilitate degree completion for undergraduate students returning to Indiana University Bloomington (IUB) after a significant hiatus. It places returning Indiana University Bloomington students on the same GPA platform as transfer students, whose prior work may count towards degree requirements but does not affect their cumulative Program GPA.

The policy will be reviewed after three years and as needed thereafter.

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Procedures

A common application will be developed by the Bloomington Office of the Registrar and distributed to all schools for their use for implementation of Fresh Start in the academic year following its approval (e.g., Fall 2019).

Students must make application to the dean of their current school of enrollment (the school through which they have been admitted to return to IU) for initial review; upon approving or denying the request, the school will forward the application to a group charged with a final evaluation. The size and membership of this group, typically comprised by advisors, administrators, faculty, and/or students, is set by the Vice Provost for Undergraduate Education.

The Office of the Registrar will update the record to extract the GPA values from the Program GPA and remain valid for degree completion, as appropriate. (This process will be applied manually by the Office of the Registrar but an alternate technological solution will be sought if the volume of approved applications exceeds current expectations.)

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History

Approved: BFC 12/4/2018

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