The proposal started in the College of Architecture, Design and Construction, said Jocelyn Zanzot, assistant professor of architecture and senator for the College.
Zanzot said the College holds a summer program in which students' work is evaluated and, under the current system, graded as satisfactory or unsatisfactory.
The students with satisfactory work are admitted into the architecture program.
"It isn't that the students that aren't accepted did unsatisfactory work in all cases," Zanzot said. "In many cases they did very great work. We only have, however, a (limited) number of spots."
The new system will have three tiers of grades: unsatisfactory, satisfactory not for advancement and satisfactory for advancement.
A mark of unsatisfactory on a transcript has damaged some students' chances of admission to graduate school, according to Claire Crutchley, associate professor of finance and chair of the Senate.
"Sometimes students would apply to law school, and the law school would see that unsatisfactory and factor it in as a zero in their grade point average," she said.
Zanzot said the new grading system should help reduce the problems caused by the original system.
"The ones that did great work, but just didn't make it in, were being unfairly penalized, and we want to make sure that they can continue on in any direction they choose," Zanzot said.
The proposal will now go to the provost and the president, Crutchley said.
If approved, any department wanting to use the new system must receive further approval from the curriculum committee.
The Senate also passed a modification to the retroactive withdrawal and resignation policy, said DeWayne Searcy, associate professor of accounting and chairman of the academic standards committee.
Retroactive withdrawal occurs during an instance in which a student, usually for extraordinary reasons, requests to drop a class after the course has been completed.
"The biggest change on that one was putting a time limit for retroactive withdrawal and resignations for nonmedical reasons," Searcy said.
Searcy said students must now apply for withdrawal by midterm of the semester after completion of the course to be dropped.
The Senate also discussed the expected increase in applicants for fall admission.
Last year's applicants increased by 10 percent, said Deedie Dowdle, executive director of the Office of Communications and Marketing.
It is expected that this year's applicants will increase by 17 percent.
Dowdle said the increase is not necessarily related to football.
"Obviously the national championship garners a great deal of visibility," Dowdle said. "However, most students who are seniors in high school have made a decision by January each year."
Despite the increase in applicants, Auburn will continue to target between 3,900 to 4,100 acceptances.
"The strategic reason for that is because the Board of Trustees has established a direction for Auburn to stay at around 25,000 in enrollment so that we can deliver quality education and have enough resources," Dowdle said.
The Senate postponed a decision on modifying the distance education program for undergraduates, Searcy said.
Currently, on-campus students cannot take distance-learning classes, and the new policy would eliminate that rule.
The proposal also seeks to remove the policy that students can only complete 25 percent of their credit hours via distance learning.
The Senate will evaluate the proposal again at its February meeting.
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