Graduate UWinterim Enrollment

The coupling of the UWinteriM term with the fall semester has raised a number of questions about how to interpret various rules and regulations relating to graduate student enrollment during the fall semester and UWinteriM terms. As a result, it is necessary to clarify how existing policies should be amended or interpreted when graduate students are enrolled in UWinteriM courses.

Although UWinteriM is treated as a part of fall semester for registration and record-keeping purposes, it represents a period of study that is temporally distinct from fall semester. In addition, registration for UWinteriM can occur well into the fall semester or after, making it impossible to take UWinteriM registration into account when monitoring compliance with registration policies or calculating semester credit hours during fall semester. As a result, policies must simultaneously recognize the administrative coupling of UWinteriM with fall semester and treat UWinteriM as a
separate term. Because of the brevity of the UWinteriM term and the fact that UWinteriM registration appears as part of fall semester, the Graduate Curriculum Committee recommends three areas (#1-3 below) where Graduate School policy should define UWinteriM registration as part of fall semester. For all other items (#4-8), the Graduate Curriculum Committee recommends defining UWinteriM as a separate term of study.

1. New degree students may not be admitted for the UWinteriM session; however, a student may re-enter graduate school during UWinteriM and this registration will be viewed as part of the previous fall semester enrollment.
2. UWinteriM enrollment does not affect time to degree calculations.
3. Incompletes received during UWinteriM will be viewed as having occurred during the fall semester and must be removed by the end of the following fall semester or they will become permanent incompletes (PI).
4. Existing graduation deadlines for fall, spring, and summer semesters are unaffected By UWinteriM enrollment. A student completing the requirements for a degree (e.g., thesis/dissertation defense, master’s comprehensive exam, final course) during UWinteriM will graduate in May, but will not have to register during the spring semester.
5. Enrollment requirements for students with graduate assistantships (RA, TA, PA) and graduate school fellowships cannot be satisfied by enrollment during UWinteriM. Students with teaching assistantships during UWinteriM are not required to register for classes during UWinteriM.
6. Assessments of full-time, half time, and part-time enrollment status during fall semester are made independent of registration or enrollment during UWinteriM. Thus, registration for five graduate credits in fall semester and three graduate credits in UWinteriM does not constitute full-time enrollment during fall semester. Registration for three graduate credits in fall semester and three graduate credits in UWinteriM does not satisfy the minimum registration requirement for graduate assistants.
7. Graduate students whose enrollment in UWinteriM would, when combined with fall semester enrollment, exceed the twelve-credit registration maximum for a semester, will not be required to file an appeal for an overload.
8. Students may not register for more than three credits during UWinteriM.

Effective Date: These policies shall become effective with the UWinteriM term beginning on January 3, 2000 and will be reviewed by the Graduate Faculty Council during the fall semester, 2002.

October 18, 1999

Graduate Faculty Council Doc. No. 795 Approved