Academic Amnesty

To allow students an opportunity to improve their academic record and therefore improve their ability to graduate with a bachelor’s degree from the University of Nebraska.

Academic amnesty removes the grade point factors of a semester taken at University of Nebraska at Kearney from a student's cumulative grade point average, but the course(s) and grades(s) remain on the student's academic record. The courses so approved are marked "Academic Amnesty". Any repeated courses from the amnesty semester will have the previous course attempt added back into the GPA calculation.

To fulfill the academic amnesty requirements, the student must do one of the following:

  1. Complete fifteen simultaneous or sequential semester hours with at least a 3.0 grade point average, or
  2. Complete thirty simultaneous or sequential semester hours with at least a 2.5 grade point average.

The hours may be from UNK, UNL, UNO, or UNMC and must be taken after the semester(s) the student wishes to remove but before receiving a baccalaureate degree from the University of Nebraska. If any hours are used from a given semester/term to meet the fifteen or thirty-hour requirement, all other hours and factors in the same semester must be used. All "incomplete" or "no report" grades within a term whose grade factors are used for amnesty must be resolved before the term can be used for amnesty purposes. Courses taken at UNO, UNL or UNMC may be used in the qualifying GPA calculation, but you must be a degree seeking student at a University of Nebraska campus to qualify for Academic Amnesty.

There is a limit of two semesters/terms that may be academically amnestied. The student must:

  1. Discuss the amnesty of the semester(s) with their academic advisor.
  2. Pick up an Academic Amnesty Form at the Office of the University Registrar, 123 Warner Hall.
  3. Fill out the form and take it to their advisor. If the advisor approves, the advisor should sign the Academic Amnesty Form.
  4. The signed form must be returned to the Office of the University Registrar, 123 Warner Hall.

Office of the University Registrar may request an interview with the student before authorizing the amnesty of the semester(s). 

In order to declare a semester amnestied, certain conditions must be understood:

  1. All courses taken during the semester are amnestied. This includes credit hours and grades.
  2. The amnesty semester is removed from consideration for GPA purposes and the amnesty credit cannot be used for prerequisite or degree requirements. The semester listing of courses and grades remains evident on the academic record, but the classes are marked "Academic Amnesty". The academic record is used to issue transcripts.
  3. Office of the University Registrar determines whether or not the student has met the previously mentioned requirements. If the judgment involves more than a clerical task, the matter will be referred to the Senior Vice Chancellor for Academic Affairs for a decision. Independent study by correspondence courses are not included in computing the qualifying GPA.
  4. Since "I", "NC", "CR", "W", “NR” and "AU" grades do not have numerical equivalents, they may not be used to meet amnesty requirements.
  5. If the semester that is amnestied was covered by veteran’s benefits, the student will be required to reimburse the VA for benefits previously received.
  6. Academic amnesty does not apply to graduate students.
  7. The request for academic amnesty must be submitted prior to receiving a baccalaureate degree from the University of Nebraska.