Senior Year Waiver Petitition Checklist

Contact person:
Martin Warner, Registrar

Waivers of degree requirements are not obtained easily. The process for consideration of a waiver is for the student to submit the waiver request, called a "petition" to the Dean of Students. If the Dean believes the petition to be well organized, the Dean brings the petition to the Committee on Academic Requirements for its consideration. If the Committee on Academic Requirements supports the petition, the Dean will bring the Committee's recommendation as a parliamentary motion to a Faculty Meeting, where the matter will be discussed and ultimately voted upon. At any stage of the process the peition can fail. If the faculty vote approval of the waiver request, the Dean notifies the student.

To petition for a waiver of the senior year degree requirement, the student must write a one or two page statement of why the waiver is requested, and how the Swarthmore Bachelors degree requirements (except for the senior year requirement) will be met. The student should work with the Registrar to be sure the student understands his or her remaining degree requirements, and any options that might exist for their fulfillment, as well as general advice in how to start preparing the petition.

The Checklist:

Each of the nine degree requirements in the catalog must be mentioned in the petition, and for any that are not yet completed, the student must obtain from the chair of the department (or director of the relevant office) a statement of explaination and support for the student's petition. The chair or director needs to adequately explain how the particular requirement under the authority of that chair or director is expected to be completed even though the student would like not to complete the normal senior year.