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Academic Policy

Forgiveness Policy


Fresh Start through Academic Renewal (formerly grade forgiveness)

IUPUI Fresh Start through Academic Renewal Policy

The purpose of this policy is to establish an effective way to encourage capable, mature students to return to IUPUI after a significant hiatus to complete their baccalaureate degree when they have achieved poorly during an earlier attempt at higher education within Indiana University. The spirit of the policy is to provide a fresh start for Indiana University students in the same way accorded to students who transfer into IUPUI from other universities. Prior work may count towards degree requirements but is not included in the calculation of the cumulative program GPA.

  1. The IUPUI Fresh Start through Academic Renewal policy applies to former IU students pursuing a first baccalaureate degree who have not been enrolled in any IU campus for 36 or more consecutive months (three years). This policy first became available to students returning to IUPUI in the fall of 1996.
  2. All IUPUI undergraduate, degree-seeking students who meet the criteria, regardless of the unit of enrollment, are eligible to apply for Fresh Start.
  3. Students must apply to use this policy by the last day of classes in their second term of enrollment after the 36+ month hiatus.
  4. Under the policy, all grades, credits, and courses remain on the transcript but an adjustment is applied to the academic record to remove the GPA points/values from the cumulative program GPA for all prior coursework. Credit for any prior IU coursework completed with grades of C or better will continue to count towards degree and/or program requirements. The school may establish guidelines which define a GPA threshold above which a student may not petition for Fresh Start.
  5. If the application is approved, the student starts their post-Fresh Start academic record with a cumulative program GPA of 0.00 after which all the rules of academic probation and dismissal for the school will apply. After approval, the student must complete a minimum of 30 credit hours on the IUPUI campus after his/her return in order to meet the graduation residency requirement.
  6. Students must make application through their current school of enrollment. Once the unit confirms the student meets the eligibility criteria, the application is forwarded to the associate vice chancellor for undergraduate education for approval. Stipulations or conditions for continued enrollment of the student may be applied.
  7. Fresh Start may be invoked only once. The policy is not available to a student pursuing a degree after a first baccalaureate degree, regardless of the level of the second degree or where the first degree was awarded.
  8. Invocation of the Fresh Start option does not preclude a student from using other available course-specific grade replacement options for work taken subsequent to re-enrollment.
  9. Fresh Start is only available for courses taken at Indiana University. Schools retain the right to consider records of performance from other universities in determining admission to the school, granting of honors, or other matters.
  10. There may be students who had transferred to IUPUI from a Purdue campus into a Purdue mission program where transfer credit applied to the record retained GPA value. In order to allow these returning students the opportunity to reset with a 0.00 cumulative program GPA, these courses, while not IU courses, are eligible for the application of the Fresh Start policy.
  11. Grades awarded based on a violation of the IU Code of Student Rights, Responsibility, and Conduct will not be removed from the cumulative program GPA by application of Fresh Start.
  12. The policy will apply to all terms of IU enrollment, regardless of the campus on which the courses were completed, for the purposes of determining IUPUI degree progress and completion.
  13. Students receiving Fresh Start at IUPUI who subsequently become degree-seeking students on another IU campus are subject to the policies in effect for the IU campus from which they receive their degree. Students receiving a similar academic forgiveness or academic renewal application on another IU campus are not eligible for IUPUI Fresh Start.

IUPUI Faculty Council (11/23/93), Dean of the Faculties (10/26/95)

Academic Affairs Committee clarified language (2/13/97), Dean of the Faculties (3/31/97)

Revised and Updated, ​​​​​​​IUPUI Faculty Council (10/5/21)