Newswise — When Delilah La Pietra was placed on Academic Probation for her grades during the spring term of her freshman year at Cal State Fullerton, she felt defeated leading to a dislike for the term “probation.”

During the same time, Dr. Elizabeth Boretz, assistant vice president for student success and the director of the academic advisement center, had been assessing some of the inclusive and equity-minded language used in her department.  Her assessment found the words “academic probation” to lack the culture of support and encouragement that she was trying to foster in her department.

“I didn't like the words - academic probation - it’s criminal language,” exclaimed Boretz. She continued, “evidence suggests that such language has an effect on underrepresented students’ sense of belonging and perceived ability to thrive as learners and future leaders.”

After La Pietra conducted a student survey for a research project, Boretz and La Pietra, with the backing of the Academic Advising Center Team and then associate vice president, Dr. Karyn Scissum Gunn, recommended using a term that didn’t hold the same negative connotations and suggested, “academic notice.”

“If you have students at risk of failing, it doesn’t make sense to scare them into doing better, we should be motivating them,”  La Pietra added. She says the term academic notice serves as a checkpoint rather than a harsh punishment.

“I have shared our argumentation and the details of the campus-wide collaboration required to implement this change with my peers system-wide. Other CSUs have already begun taking early steps to adopt this change toward normalizing academic difficulty.” Boretz said.

To learn more about Cal State Fullerton’s inclusive and equity-minded transition from Academic Probation to Academic Notice, please click here