The University of Wisconsin announced they will update student transcripts to include a new value of “Good Academic Standing” to indicate positive academic standing.

In an email sent to undergraduate and non-degree seeking students, the Office of the Registrar said this addition brings UW’s academic standing policies in alignment with other universities. Transcripts will now display a student’s academic standing for every term they are enrolled in, even previous semesters.

Prior to this change, student transcripts included if a student was on academic probation and did not specify if a student was in good academic standing. Students with a GPA of less than 2.000 in the semester just completed or cumulatively are put on academic probation.

This addition means students no longer have to request additional documentation for scholarships, employment, insurance discounts and more, according to the email.

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In an email statement to The Badger Herald, Associate Registrar for Student Services Beth Warner said these changes do not apply to graduate and professional students. UW graduate and professional students do not have academic standing actions on their transcript, Warner said.

While the Office of the Registrar does much of the technical and administrative functions as they relate to student records, UW schools and colleges decided policies that drive this work, Warner said. She added this change was made on the request of the Academic Advising Policy Leaders and in consultation with the University Academic Planning Council.

“While the punitive academic standing actions (e.g. probation, strict probation, dropped) have always displayed on the student transcript, if a student was in good academic standing, no action appeared on their transcript,” Warner said.

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Located in the Office of Undergraduate Advising, the AAPL is composed of associate or assistant deans from each UW school and college in addition to the Division of Continuing Studies.

To reduce confusion and be consistent, Warner said “Good Academic Standing” as a status will be added to the computerized records of all current and previous undergraduate and special students at UW. UW will not insert the new status on the records of students who attended UW prior to 1979 since UW maintains only paper or microfiche records for them, Warner said.

The change will take effect Friday, Dec. 10.