Students with a grade point average lower than 2.5 can no longer load up on classes because of a policy change intended to cut down on paper work in deans’ offices.

A request to allow senior non-teacher certification majors with a 2.0 GPA to take more than the normal load of 18 semester hours but no more than 21 without a dean’s permission failed at the Council on Academic Affairs meeting Thursday.

Previously, seniors had to have a 2.5 GPA in order to sign up for extra classes, but if they didn’t they could request permission to do so from the dean of their college.

The Academic Waiver Appeals Committee requested “this change to eliminate an enormous amount of paper work,” Elizabeth Hitch, dean of the College of Educational and Professional Studies and chair of the committee, told the CAA.

CAA member Tim Shonk, associate English professor, said the request was unacceptable because it did not allow senior teacher certification majors to take an overload with a 2.0 GPA. The real issue is if students will be able to handle the extra load, he said.

“Whether or not they have educational maturity seems to be the issue here,” Shonk said, “not if they are teacher or non-teacher certification majors.”

That portion of the change was requested to comply with graduation requirements for the different programs, Hitch said, and teacher certification majors cannot graduate with a GPA under 2.5 so they should not be able to take an overload with a GPA under 2.5.

After the debate, CAA created and passed a motion to keep the GPA requirement at 2.5 for all seniors, but remove the ability for students with a GPA under 2.5 to request a permission waiver from the dean.