• Architecture
  
• Business Administration
  
• Education
  
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• Honors
  
• Hotel & Restaurant
  Management
  
• Humanities,
  Fine Arts &
  Communication
  
• Law
  
• Natural Sciences & Mathematics
  
• Optometry
  
• Pharmacy
  
• Social Sciences
  
• Graduate School of
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Students are responsible for fulfilling all requirements of the catalog under which they are graduating. After selecting a major field of study, and not later than the beginning of the junior year, students should request that their advisors prepare degree plans for them. Final degree plans must be submitted to the dean's office for approval.

Majors and Advising

Freshman humanities, fine arts, and communication students may select a major department when first registering. They receive academic advising from the department in which they major and should take the initiative by asking for assistance from academic advisors. Those who are uncertain of their majors may enroll as unspecified majors in the college. These students receive academic advising through the dean's office. They are encouraged to explore areas of possible interest in their freshman and sophomore years and to decide on a major as soon as possible. Especially in the fine arts, it is valuable to begin taking major subjects in the first semester.

Teacher certification programs are usually directed by the department in which the first teaching field is located. Preprofessional advisors are available either in departmental offices on campus or in the dean's office. Students planning to enter a professional or graduate program should acquaint themselves with the specific requirements of the school they wish to enter.

Undergraduate Course Load

Course loads for undergraduate students are determined by university policy, curriculum of study, and personal factors such as work and family responsibilities. See the general information section of this catalog for a complete discussion of course loads. In general, for those students who expect to complete the requirements for a bachelor's degree in about four years, the maximum undergraduate course loads for the fall and spring semesters are as follows:

Classification	Hours
Freshmen, not enrolled in one semester hour of physical education	15
Sophomores, juniors, seniors, postbaccalaureates	18
Students on probation	12

The totals listed above include all courses for which students may wish to enroll. Permission to take course loads above these maximums must be approved by the faculty advisor (or the chair of the major department) and dean.

Academic Grievance Policy

In the normal conduct of education at the University of Houston, justifiable grievances may arise concerning the violation of university, college, or department academic policies or procedures. The College of Humanities, Fine Arts, and Communication is committed to resolving these grievances in a fair, orderly, and expeditious manner. To that end, the college has established informal and formal procedures beginning at the department level for settling academic grievances.

An academic grievance refers to an action taken against a student by a member of the faculty (including part-time instructors and teaching assistants), staff, or administration that either violates a university, college, or department academic policy or procedure or prejudicially treats the student on the basis of race, color, national origin, religion, sex, age, handicap, veteran status, or any other non-academic status.

Because assigning a grade or evaluating a student's work performance involves the faculty's professional judgment and is an integral part of the faculty's teaching responsibilities, disagreement with an instructor concerning a grade or evaluation is not a justifiable grievance to be considered under this policy unless factors such as those mentioned in the previous paragraph can be shown to have affected that grade or evaluation.

A student with a justifiable grievance that can be substantiated should initiate academic grievance proceedings as soon as possible after the action in dispute occurs.

Any student who believes he or she has an academic grievance involving the College of Humanities, Fine Arts, and Communication should first try to resolve the grievance informally with the faculty member or other involved parties. In some cases, the student may have to discuss the grievance with the department chair, the college officer designated by the dean, or both before obtaining a satisfactory resolution.

If the informal discussions do not resolve the academic grievance, the aggrieved student may initiate a formal grievance by submitting a written complaint to the chair of the department involved (or the college officer designated by the dean if the chair is the focus of the grievance) as soon as the informal proceedings have ended.

The aggrieved student who does not obtain a satisfactory resolution at the departmental level may file a formal appeal first with the office of the dean and then, failing to obtain satisfaction, with the office of the senior vice president for academic affairs.

The procedures a graduate student must follow to file an academic grievance in the College of Humanities, Fine Arts, and Communication are in the latest edition of the Faculty Handbook.The procedures an undergraduate student must follow are available in writing in the office of each department in the college and in the office of the dean (402-AH). Departmental academic grievance procedures for undergraduate students are also available in writing in the same offices.

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