Procedures
A. Declaring a Major
1. To be awarded an AAS or AAA degree, students must declare a major.
a. Students requesting transfer credits must have official transcripts sent to the Records Office before a student completes the declaration-of-major form.
b. For the AAS in General Studies, students must choose a specific area of concentration for core requirements.
2. The college catalog in effect at the time a student declares a major determines the degree requirements to be met to earn the degree. A student must either (a) meet those requirements within five years of the date of declaration or (b) elect to meet the requirements of any subsequent catalog published during the five-year period from the date of declaration. This election is made when the student files a petition to graduate.
3. If more than five years have elapsed since the date of declaration, the student must re- declare a major under the current catalog.
4. If the college discontinues a degree program in which students have declared majors, either (a) those students will be allowed to complete the degree, as long as they can do so within a five-year period of the original declaration and the courses for the degree or appropriate substitutes are still available, or (b) the college will assist those students in redirecting their earned credit hours toward other degrees.
B. Petitioning to Graduate
1. A student nearing completion of the requirements for a degree will need to complete a Petition to Graduate form and deliver it to the academic school in which his or her major is offered.
2. The department chair or faculty advisor evaluates the student’s transcripts against the degree requirements and submits the petition to the dean for approval. The petition is thereafter submitted to the Records Office, which in turn notifies the student of their graduation eligibility.
3. Deadlines for petitions to graduate are set by the Registrar and published in the college catalog.
C. Transfer Credits
1. Course credits transferred from another accredited institution of higher education may be used toward SFCC’s graduation requirements as recommended by the faculty and subject to the following conditions:
a. Residency requirement. Transfer students must earn at least one-quarter of the total number of required credit hours for their degree from SFCC this includes one-quarter of the core hours.
b. Substitutions. Technical or occupational courses accepted in transfer may be substituted for some SFCC requirements.
c. Grade-point average. A student’s cumulative GPA for all courses accepted in transfer must equal at least 2.0. (A grade of C or better is required for core and related requirements accepted in transfer.)
Guidelines
A. Developmental courses (courses numbered below 111) do not meet degree requirements.
B. Based on written documentation, SFCC may permit a student to waive a graduation requirement or to substitute another course for a required course as long as the minimum degree credit hours are satisfied.
C. Students who wish to graduate from SFCC must meet all financial, academic, and disciplinary obligations at the college.
(POLICY APPROVAL: 02-20-02, SFCC Governing Board)
CM/FRV
Updated: 7/29/03
RL/MP
Updated: 5/18/11
