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Academic Policy

Forgiveness Policy

IUPUI’s Forgiveness Policy has established an effective way to encourage capable, mature undergraduate students to return to college even though they may have done poorly during earlier attempts at Indiana University. This policy does not cover graduate students or students seeking a second undergraduate degree.

The Forgiveness Policy is not available to students in all schools. A student granted forgiveness in one unit might have that forgiveness revoked upon transferring to another IUPUI school.

The general campus policy appears below. Students should contact school recorders to determine whether or not this option is available and appropriate for them.

The spirit of the Forgiveness Policy is to provide the same fresh start to former IU students accorded to students transferring from other universities. The policy applies only to former IU students who have worked on a first undergraduate degree but who have not attended any college for a minimum of three years. Each IUPUI school can grant forgiveness, but other schools may refuse to accept the forgiveness policy when students change schools. Schools do not have to consider forgiveness for purposes of admission, granting of honors, or meeting the minimum GPA required for conferral of degrees.

Students must invoke this policy upon application for admission to a degree-granting school or submit a notification of intent to petition for academic forgiveness if not yet accepted by a school.

If the forgiveness petition is accepted, all courses previously taken will remain on the transcript, but only courses with grades of A+, A, A–, B+, B, B–, C+, C, P, and S may be counted toward degree requirements, though these grades will not count in the student’s GPA. In effect, the student will start with a cumulative GPA of 0.0, after which all the rules of academic probation and dismissal will apply. Forgiveness may be invoked only once, and it does not preclude a student from using other grade replacement options available for course work taken after forgiveness is granted. Forgiveness is available only for courses taken at Indiana University.

Visit the IUPUI Faculty Council website to see the entire policy.