Academic Record Checks: We are Waiting to Serve You

The Office of  Academic Support Services (OASiS) offers you the opportunity to have experienced Academic Specialists review your academic record to check for discrepancies. All discrepancies will be brought to the attention of the Registrar’s Office. You will learn skills to better manage your academic record and including calculating your GPA. For example, if you want to make a 3.00 GPA  this semester, you will learn how to calculate the GPA needed to achieve this goal. You can also come by to visit with us when we are scheduled in the Residential Halls throughout the semester. 

Your academic record will be reviewed to determine if:

1) all repeated courses have been zeroed out with the appropriate course(s) credited;

2) the appropriate academic status is posted on your record;
3) the deadline for Incomplete grades on your records have expired.

OASiS Academic Specialists have helped many students to move from their current GPAs to having higher GPAs and from Academic Warning/Probation to Good Academic Standing through our intrusive, detailed Academic Record Checks. The Checks will help to minimize problems that may interfere with Senior record checks or just help to clean up students' transcripts before graduation using the University's forgiveness policy, Academic Bankruptcy. Students will also learn about OASiS comprehensive academic support services which are helping hundreds of AAMU students to achieve higher levels of academic success.

Please do not miss the chance to learn how to effectively manage and check the accuracy of YOUR academic record! The OASiS team looks forward to working with you!

How to Apply for Academic Bankruptcy

1. You must obtain an application from the Office of Academic Affairs in 108 Patton Hall or from the Office of Academic Support Services in Suite 100 Buchanan Hall.
2. Meet with Dr. Leatha M. Bennett in the Office of Academic Support Services to review your academic record and discuss the pros and cons of the Academic Bankruptcy policy.  If Dr. Bennett is not available to meet with you, please visit Ms. Linda Skeete McClellan in her office in 100C Buchanan Hall.
3. After the review, if you wish to submit an application for Academic Bankruptcy, you will be given a copy of the completed and signed application for your records.  You will sign the OASiS office log to indicate your application was submitted.
4. The application will be submitted to the Office of Academic Affairs for processing by the Academic Appeals Committee at its next meeting.
5. If your application is approved, your transcript will be adjusted to reflect the bankrupted semester (s).

Improving Your GPA: Academic Bankruptcy /Repeating Courses

Academic Bankruptcy
Are of you aware of the University’s academic forgiveness policy, Academic Bankruptcy, which allows eligible undergraduate students the opportunity to replace earned grades with a WB for the approved semester(s) in which they performed poorly? Students can retake those courses if they are needed to fulfill requirements for their degree. Courses that are bankrupted will not be used in calculating the students’ GPA. One year must elapse between the time grades were earned and the Academic Bankruptcy request. Note that only students who are pursuing their first baccalaureate degree are eligible to apply for Academic Bankruptcy.

I am encouraging seniors, especially graduating seniors, to come by the Office of Academic Support Services now for a comprehensive Academic Record Check. The Check will help seniors to determine if submitting an Academic Bankruptcy application will positively benefit their GPA or help them to clean up the appearance of their transcript by removing failed courses that have been repeated. Academic Bankruptcy must be requested prior to the end of the student’s graduating semester and will be awarded only once in the student’s career at AAMU.

If you want to learn more about the University’s Academic Bankruptcy policy, please visit Dr. Leatha M. Bennett in 105 Buchanan Hall. She can be reached at 256.372.5491 or send her an email at leatha.bennett@aamu.edu.

Repeating Courses
Did you know that students can retake courses and have the second grade earned count (if it is a higher or the same grade) in your GPA calculation? To receive more information about repeating courses, please visit Dr. Bennett in the Office of Academic Support Services in 105 Buchanan Hall.  

ORAS Welcomes You Back from Spring Break 2011!

I hope each of you had a relaxing and warm Spring Break! The campus was empty without you. The Office of Retention and Academic Support is waiting to help you. Some students did not do as well as they had expected on their mid-term grade report and others did quite well. Our goal is to help students get on the right academic track as quickly as possible.

ORAS offers a comprehensive array of academic support services for students. We also assist faculty in various ways, e.g., classroom presentations on study skills and test-taking techniques, talking with students about the importance of class attendance, responding to Early Alerts from faculty, etc.

If you want to learn more information about ORAS services, please feel free to call Dr. Leatha M. Bennett at 256.372.5491.

Conditionally Admitted Students Are Succeeding at AAMU!

Just wanted to share some preliminary data with you on the academic progress of 446 conditionally admitted students served by the Office of Retention and Academic Support (ORAS) during SOAR under the guidance of Ms. Cynthia Benion. Due to the large number of conditionally admitted students, ORAS developed and implemented a specialized program, ASAP, for conditionally admitted students at Alabama A&M University in Fall 2008. Components of the program include early connection the first-time freshmen during SOAR; individualized intrusive academic advising and counseling; ASAP’s two signature workshops, How to Graduate in Four Years and How To Get an A in College Classes; helping students to develop short- and long-term goals, and connecting them to appropriate campus resources. The retention and academic success data for these first-time, conditionally admitted students have been certainly impressive.

% Returned for Spring 2011
Of the 446 assisted by ASAP during SOAR sessions, 81% returned for Spring 2011.

Good Academic Standing
85% - 1.50 GPA or higher
75% - 2.00 GPA or higher
57% - 2.50 GPA or higher
32% - 3.00 GPA or higher

Credit Hours Earned
Average GPA Hours                - 12.49
Average Hours Completed     - 11.24

Conditionally admitted students can succeed at our University with intentional programming and the proper support resources! To learn more about ASAP, please call me at 256.327.5491 or come by to visit me in 105 Buchanan Hall.

THE ROLE OF FACULTY IN STUDENT RETENTION

"Student-faculty interaction has a stronger relationship to student satisfaction with the college experience than any other involvement variable, or indeed, any other student or institutional characteristic." – Alexander Astin, UCLA HERI

"Students who have frequent contact with faculty members in and out of the class during their college years are more satisfied with their educational experiences, are less likely to drop out, and perceive themselves to have learned more than students who have less faculty contact." ‐ K. Patricia Cross, About Campus, 1998


"There is no decent, adequate, respectable education, in the proper sense of that much‐abused word, without personal involvement by a teacher with the needs and concerns, academic and personal of his/her students. All the rest is ‘instruction’ or ‘information transfer', but it is not teaching and the student is not truly learning."
 ‐ Page Smith, Killing the Spirit, 1990


"Relatively simple changes in teaching methods can produce significant gains in learning for college students." - Harvard Assessment Seminar, 1990

Changing Lanes…Become a Mentor

Mentoring is your opportunity to connect with a first-year student or a continuing student at the University. Students are paired with faculty, staff, upper class students, former mentees, and alumni. Mentors connect students to campus resources, provide encouragement and friendly support. To become a Changing Lanes mentor, contact Howard Wright, Ed.D. at 256.372.5493, howard.wright@aamu.edu. His office is located in 101 Buchanan Hall. ORAS office hours: 8:00 a.m. - 5: 00 p.m.