Academic Amnesty

Philosophy
Some students attempted college work previously and were not successful in their efforts. They now wish to resume their college careers but are held back by poor academic records. The goal of academic amnesty is to respond to the academic needs of matured individuals as they develop newly identified potential. Through the application of academic amnesty, the student’s prior academic record can be excluded from current work under certain conditions.

Eligibility
The student must:

1. Be an undergraduate, full-time or part-time, degree-seeking student at one of the universities in the South Dakota Regental system.
2. Not have been enrolled in any Regental university for a minimum of three calendar years (9 consecutive terms including Fall, Spring, and Summer) prior to the most recent admission to the home institution. Exceptions may be granted in rare cases only by the Board of Regents Senior Administrator upon recommendation of the Vice President for Academic Affairs.
3. Have completed a minimum of 24 graded credit hours taken at any Regental university with a minimum grade point average of 2.0 for the 24 credit hours after the most recent admission to the home institution.
4. Not have earned a baccalaureate degree from any university.
5. Not have been granted any prior academic amnesty at any Regental university.
6. Submit a formal Academic Amnesty Petition to his/her home university following the procedures established by that university.

Conditions/Procedure

1. Academic amnesty does not apply to individual courses. Academic amnesty may be requested for either (a) all previous postsecondary education courses, or (b) all previous postsecondary education courses at a specific institution, or (c) a specified time period not to exceed one academic year (Fall/Spring).
2. Academic amnesty, if granted, shall not be rescinded.
3. Courses for which academic amnesty is granted will:
   1. remain on the student’s permanent record.
   2. be recorded on the student’s undergraduate transcript with the original grade followed by an asterisk(*).
   3. not be included in the calculation of the student’s grade point average because no credit is given.
   4. not be used to satisfy any of the graduation requirements of the current degree program.
4. Academic amnesty decisions will be made by the student’s home institution, will be honored by all programs within the home institution, and will be honored by all other institutions within the South Dakota Regental system.
5. Universities outside of the South Dakota Regental system are not bound by the academic amnesty decisions made by the South Dakota Regental system.
6. Regental graduate programs and graduate professional schools may consider all previous undergraduate course work when making admission decisions.