Students taking “Special Project” courses may earn up to three credit hours for courses designated as Special Projects in their associate degree and an additional three hours credit for Special Projects in their baccalaureate program.
A total of six Special Project credits may be awarded in a baccalaureate program with three credits coming at the lower division level and three from the upper division level. Students at the associate’s level will not be given credit for upper division level Special Projects.
Students registering for three one credit Special Projects must do so by the end of the first week of the semester; students registering for two one credit Special Projects must do so by the end of the fifth week of the semester; and students registering for a single one credit Special Project must do so by the end of the tenth week of the semester.
First semester students are not restricted from registering for a Special Project. However, this course offering assumes that the student possesses a certain degree of academic maturity. For some students, it may not be in their best interest to register for a Special Project during their first semester of study.
Students who are not in their first semester of study must have maintained an overall GPA of 2.0 or better in order to register for a Special Projects course. Students are required to work at least 45 hours per credit hour. This will include any formal meetings with the instructor, any lab related work and any outside work. This should be clearly stated in the description of the Special Project course offering in the course catalog.
No non-faculty may offer a Special Project without the direct advisement and approval of faculty members from the school in which the course is being offered.
Any faculty offering a Special Projects course must submit written documentation at the beginning of the project that describes the goal, activities, and outcome of the project. This documentation must be included in the student’s permanent file.
A similar form will be used for all schools. The form will require five signatures: the student, advisor, faculty supervisor, Dean of the student’s school, and the Dean of the crediting school.
There is no restriction on the number of special projects students a faculty member may have during a particular semester.