The Sacramento State Degree Evaluations office has extended the degree filing deadline for students planning to graduate in spring 2003.

The filing deadline, which had been initially set for May 1, has been extended to May 31 in an effort to alleviate some of the confusion over a recent change in filing date deadlines.

“Since this is the first semester that we are implementing the change, I am allowing for a grace period to accommodate for the possibility that word may have not gotten out to students,” said Sac State Degree Evaluations Coordinator Vivian Llamas-Green.

In the future, degree filing deadlines will remain November 1 for fall semester graduation and May 1 for spring semester graduation.

The decision to change the filing dates was made by Llamas-Green in an effort to give students more time after evaluations were returned to adjust their schedule for unforeseen changes.

“Students would file in September and not get it back in time to adjust their schedules,” Llamas-Green said.

Sac State faculty expressed concerns regarding the earlier filing deadlines.

“Faculty?s main concern was primarily the time frame that it occurred. Students were under the impression that the deadline was going to be in September. Faculty was concerned about the earlier deadline and their ability to review in the shorter amount of time,” Llamas-Green said.

Llamas-Green presented the rationale for the decision to the executive committee of the Faculty Senate in an effort to address faculty concerns.

“My justification was to allow students more time to plan for their last year. I wanted to truly give the students 2 semesters to plan,” Llamas-Green said.

Up to a third of the students filing for graduation were not able to graduate within the time that they were planning, Llamas-Green said.

“We hope that if students have more time to plan once they?ve received their evaluations, that there will be an increase in the number of students who graduate when they planned to,” Llamas-Green said.

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