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ACADEMIC POLICY AND INFORMATION

Birmingham-Southern College Catalog 2016-2017

30

Birmingham-Southern College. Students may give permission to allow their education

record to be disclosed to a designated individual(s) by signing the

FERPA Release Form -

Student Consent for Access to Education Records

. The FERPA Release Form is available

on the Office of Academic Records home page. FERPA also allows a student’s academic

record to be shared without the student’s direct consent with parents or guardians who

certify their student is claimed as a dependent for IRS purposes.

The school discloses education records without a student’s prior written consent under

the FERPA exception for disclosure to school officials with legitimate educational

interests. A school official is a person employed by Birmingham-Southern College in an

administrative, supervisory, academic, research, or support staff position (including law

enforcement unit personnel and health staff); a person serving on the Board of Trustees;

or a student serving on an official committee, such as a disciplinary or grievance

committee. A school official also may include a volunteer or contractor outside of the

College who performs an institutional service of function for which the school would

otherwise use its own employees and who is under the direct control of the school with

respect to the use and maintenance of personally identifiable information from education

records, such as an attorney, auditor, or collection agent or a student volunteering to

assist another school official in performing his or her tasks. A school official has a

legitimate educational interest if the official needs to review an education record in order

to fulfill his or her professional responsibilities for Birmingham-Southern College.

The Office of Academic Records provides an online FERPA tutorial that fully explains

the policy.

ACADEMIC HONORS

Dean’s List of Distinguished Students

The Dean’s List of Distinguished Students is compiled at the end of both the fall and

spring terms. It consists of the names of those students who have maintained a grade

point average of 3.500 or higher on work attempted during the term. To qualify for the

Dean’s List, a student must take at least three full-unit courses and receive a letter grade

of “C” or higher for each of the courses in which he or she has enrolled. No student is

eligible for the Dean’s List in any term during which he or she has received an

incomplete grade (“I” or “O”) or a grade of “S.”

Honors at Graduation

The final cumulative grade point average is calculated to three decimal places without

additional rounding. Students who during their academic careers establish a grade point

average of 3.500 are graduated

cum laude

; those who establish a grade point average of

3.750 are graduated

magna cum laude

; and those with a grade point average of 3.900 are

graduated

summa cum laude.