Academic Integrity

Plagiarism, cheating, and other misconduct are serious violations of your contract as a student. We expect that you will know and follow the UW’s policies on cheating and plagiarism. Any suspected cases of academic misconduct will be handled according to UW regulations, managed by the student’s home college – for AFS majors, academic misconduct is handled by the College of the Environment.

Satisfactory Undergraduate Progress (also known as the SAFS Continuation Policy)

All students must meet the minimum criteria for satisfactory academic progress:

1. Academic progress towards the attainment of the AFS degree, evidenced by:

• No more than one course repeat, one course drop between weeks 3–7 (excluding hardship withdrawals), three incompletes, or one withdrawal from a quarter of courses per academic year.
• At least 50% of credits a student registers for in a given quarter should count toward the student’s declared major(s) and minor(s), including general education requirements.

2. Students must earn a 2.0 AVERAGE GPA in all courses that are used to meet the following requirements:

• Natural History (FISH 310 and 311)
• Core Courses (three of the following four courses – FISH 312, 323, 324, 340)
• 400-level FISH electives (min. 16 credits, 4 courses)

3. Students must maintain a minimum quarterly GPA of 2.00.

4. Students must maintain a minimum cumulative GPA of 2.00, and thereby avoid appearing on the University’s Low Scholarship list.

If a student fails to meet any or all of the criteria outlined above in any quarter in the program, the student will be notified by the SAFS Undergraduate Adviser and/or the UW Registrar with details on any resulting actions to be taken. For more information on criteria and procedures, see the full policy.

Disability Accommodations

To request academic accommodations due to a disability, contact Disability Resources for Students, 011 Mary Gates Hall, 206-543-8924 (V/TTY). If you have a letter from that office indicating that you have a disability which requires academic accommodations, present the letter to the instructor so that we can discuss the accommodations needed for the class.

Course Fee Policy

The School of Aquatic & Fishery Sciences (SAFS) supports the majority of its course offerings by providing the salaries and benefits of academic faculty, staff, teaching assistants, peer TAs and graders. The School supplies a teaching computer laboratory, wet laboratories, digital projectors for instructional use, microscopes in its wet labs, supplies for molecular-based labs, and basic field equipment for instructional use as well as the effort of a . SAFS also provides copying, scanning, poster production and other administrative services and supplies related to its academic teaching program.

SAFS provides courses for students with emphases on both basic and applied aquatic sciences. Field trips are required in some courses for students to gain an understanding of natural systems and resources, and foster the sustainable use of those aquatic resources. Some of our field trips require the charter of boats, or the rental of cars/vans, as well as lodging for students. Similarly, many of our laboratory-based courses require technology and supplies, and have related costs such as set-up, maintenance and cleaning of materials, supplies and equipment. Because SAFS does not have the funding to support all course laboratory work, field studies and field trips, we capture some of the expenses through course fees.  Course fees are additional charges to students that are intended to pay for specific course-related costs.

Read the full SAFS Course Fee Policy, which includes changes and refunds.