UWM Committee Votes to Lower GPA Major Requirements

The L&S Academic Policies and Curriculum Committee at the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee passed a proposal on Friday Nov. 9 that would lower the GPA requirements for students in the College of Letters and Science.

The committee unanimously decided to change GPA requirements for majors and minors to 2.0 instead of 2.5. The proposal was passed and is awaiting final confirmation from the committee in December.

UWM was one of the only schools in the country that required students to maintain a 2.5 grade point average in their major/minor in order to graduate.

“This brings is us in line with pretty much the rest of the world in terms of GPA requirements,” said UWM Assistant Dean Mike Darnell, who was at the meeting. Darnell stated that, “Provided that the APCC approves this in December, it will be implemented now, as in this semester. This will affect students who are graduating this semester.”

However, the majority of other universities in the country have always made students attain only a 2.0 average or higher in their field of study. Making this adjustment puts UWM in the same position as most other four-year schools. 

The unique 2.5 GPA requirement has seriously impacted the number of students who have been able to graduate from UWM. The school has a graduation rate of just 43.5 percent, which is low compared to UW-Madison’s 83.7 percent. University officials hope that this change will be very beneficial for students.

“You can imagine why I have a lot of enthusiasm about this motion,” said UWM Dean of Letters & Science Scott Gronert, highlighting the importance of making this change take place as quickly as possible. “The reason we want this to happen this semester is so we don’t have students making decisions about the spring or taking classes in the spring if they don’t have to.”

There have been a number of cases where students have needed to enroll in extra courses and stay in school for additional semesters to raise their major GPA from 2.3 or 2.4 up to 2.5, which is obviously expensive and time-consuming. Gronert understands that students or former students may be upset when learning that the 2.5 major/minor GPA requirement is unusual for a four-year school, and that UWM, up until now, was one of the few universities implementing it. The university hopes that this change in policy will prevent students from having to waste unnecessary time and money on repeating courses that most schools would not require them to repeat.

“We moved as fast as we could when we identified the problem,” Gronert said. “Our philosophy will be to try to move as many students to graduation as possible. We’re not going to keep this under the radar, we are going to reach out to students and try to make it possible for as many students to take advantage of it.”

Darnell and Gronert stated that some former UWM students who dropped out or left school due to the 2.5 requirement would now be able to return to complete their degree and graduate.

“For some it may be the case that they simply need one more course, they may have dropped out because they just didn’t see any possibility of getting to that 2.5 GPA. Now it’s possible that they can come back, complete one more class and be done,” Darnell said. “We’re working with advising to dig down and communicate with former students, and try to reach as many folks as we can.”

“This is one of those cases where many UWM students do tend to stay near campus when they’re done with school here,” Gronert added. “So hopefully we’ll find some people who are nearby and we’ll be able to reach out to them.”

As expected, UWM faculty at the meeting unanimously approved the motion, with not one single member voting against the change in policy.

While UWM students are okay with the fact that UWM is now on par with other schools, students had mixed reactions about the new requirements.

“More students will be able to graduate, so it’s helpful to them on a personal level,” said UWM student Zoe Smith Munson.

“I understand that people have real problems in their lives that they’re dealing with that might prevent them from getting the best grades, and I’m happy that this change will help them,” Munson said. “But a 2.0 is not really something that’s satisfactory for a college graduate to put on their resume. I think we need to be aware of the fact that as a school, we already don’t have the best reputation, so maybe lowering standards isn’t our best option.”

UWM senior Matthew Cade said UWM now falling in line with the rest of the universities nationwide in terms of GPA is a good thing, but that every university should perhaps look at increasing requirements. 

“I feel like we need to be at the norm, but at the same time, I don’t know if a 2.0 should be the norm,” Cade said. “You don’t really have to apply yourself at all to get a 2.0. So if we keep lowering our standards, where does it stop?”

UWM hopes that the GPA adjustment will be beneficial for graduation rates and helpful to students past, present and future. The university hopes that students will spend less money taking extra courses to boost their grade point averages, and with that will hopefully come an increase in graduation rates.