The university will not be as forgiving after fall 2012.

Student Congress discussed a new Grade Forgiveness Policy in their general body meeting Tuesday.

The two types of grade forgivenesses are grade exclusion and grade replacement. A student can use these policies for up to three classes, with only one class being a 3000 or 4000 level.

The current policy is students who receive a grade of D or F can file for a grade replacement by retaking the class and replacing the grade with the new grade, higher or lower. The grade exclusion option can be applied to a class a student is not required to take that they made a D or F in.

The new policy will still allow students to file for grade forgiveness opportunities, but they will be limited to 1000 or 2000 level courses.

Student Congress will provide their vote in favor or against the policy during the next general body meeting March 6.

The vote is to provide a student voice and will not effect the new policy.

School of Urban and Public Affairs senator Kelsey Jackson said she is in favor of the new policy.

The interdisciplinary junior said the new policy will help students focus on their upper level courses.

The 3000 or 4000 level courses are specific to students’ majors and it’s important for students to excel in their major, Jackson said.

Student Congress president Jennifer Fox said to consider the demographic of the university when they are implementing this policy.

Fox said that one of reasons for the change is that the university is trying to become Tier One.

“Most of the Tier One schools do not offer such a lenient policy,” Fox said.

UTA has a lot of first generation students and transfer students that take upper level courses, she said.

“If we are going to hold our students to higher standards and not give them the ability to make a mistake and correct it, then we need to make sure that we’re only admitting students into the university that can meet those high standards,” Fox said.

University studies senior Richard McDonald said he would prefer for the policy to stay the same.

“We all make mistakes, and the important thing is we don’t need to discourage mistakes, we need to encourage learning from our mistakes,” McDonald said.

Students are too focused on getting an A instead of actually learning something, he said.