Chemistry Handbook

If you give someone an pre-requisite override, they won't be warned or dropped later.  Students get the warning/drop when they don't finish (or fail) a pre-requisite.  Therefore, students need to get official transcripts from their other school only if they need it for their program. (Jennifer Glaab 7/20/18)

Can a BIC major get a minor in CHM?  Yes, in fact all BIC majors automatically qualify for a CHM minor because all of the CHM minor requirements are required for the BIC major.  While the requirements are automatically met, the minor is not automatically given--students must apply for it.  Opinions differ as to the meaningfulness of such an addition, but the Biochemistry faculty voted to allow students to do this.  Best practice is probably to not advertise or encourage this, but if a student insists, you can note that it is allowed.  (DAL 6/2024) 

Can BMS 250/251 serve in place of BMS 290/291 for the BIC major?  Biochemists decided: "No, this course has minimal CHM pre-reqs and does not count for the BMS major".  (DAL 6/2024)

Under some rare situations, a student who fails or does poorly in CHM 245 may end up taking CHM 241--there are a few examples that have occurred in the past:

• A student fails CHM 245 in the Fall and wishes to repeat the class in the Winter aiming not to fall too far behind.  CHM 245 is not offered in Winter so they take CHM 241.
• A student fails CHM 245 multiple times and wishes to complete their degree using 241.

The Curriculum Committee decided that we should allow CHM 241 grades to replace CHM 245/246 by departmental approval only.   If a student requests this action and presents a reasonable rationale, the Associate Chair for Student Affairs can approve this by informing the registrar. The CHM 245/246 grades will no longer count toward the GPA (and major GPA).  If the course was repeated at GVSU, the new 241 grade will count toward the GPA.  If the course was repeated at another university, the new grade will not count toward the GPA (transfer courses are not included in GPA) but the original grade will not count either.  This policy will be the same for CHM 242 replacing CHM 247/248.  (Dave Leonard, August 2025)

MTH 123 is not an acceptable pre-requisite for CHM 116 (Debbie Herrington 8/2/2021)

STA 215 is not an acceptable pre-requisite for CHM 116 (Tom Pentecost 3/28/2025)

Update:  now that we have moved to CHM 234, CHM 115 is an automatic pre-requiste, so this question is moot (DAL 7/2026)

CHM 115 to CHM 230 exceptions

There are certain situations that we regularly allow students to jump from CHM 115 to CHM 230 without CHM 109 or CHM 116. Waivers are typically delivered with a warning that the student would be better taking CHM 109 as they are missing certain topics such as equilibria, acid-base etc.  

It is very important to make sure the student and advisor understand that a pre-requisite waiver does not allow the student to get CHM 109 credit on their transcript.  This is particularly important if a degree program or graduate program requires CHM 109.  For instance, Nursing requires CHM 109 for admittance, unless it is for the second-degree program--in the latter case, they only require CHM 230.

Pre-Nursing students  After some conversations with a pre-Nursing advisor (Mike Stoll), we agreed that we would allow CHM 115 as a pre-req for CHM 230 if the student earned a B- or higher in CHM 115. 

OSH majors  After some conversations with OSH professor Dave Huizen, we agreed that we would allow CHM 115 as a pre-req for CHM 230 if the student earned a C or higher in CHM 115.  Dave noted that he might recommend exceptions if he knew the student had made good academic progress in recent semesters.

Biomedical Engineers  We have a long-standing agreement with BME that their students can jump from CHM 115 to CHM 230.  As far as I know, the only requirement is that they pass 115. (DAL 6/2024)

The university requires that the last 30 credits towards an undergraduate degree be earned at GVSU.  Students who interrupt those last 30 credits must request a waiver of this policy. For instance:

• a student moves away, or is having financial trouble and needs to take a class at a community college. 
•  transfer credit is not applied until the last year, even though the actual class was taken much earlier.  

The University is relatively generous about this, but it is best not to advertise it until other options have been exhausted.  The form (titled Request for Residency Waiver Form ), with appropriate signatures, is then submitted to the Student Academic Success Center in 200 Student Services for a decision. (DAL 6/2024)

The university requires 2 SWS courses completed with a grade of C or higher (not C-).  It is no longer necessary to have one of the SWS classes in the major.  I know of no case where this requirement has been waived. (DAL 6/2024)

After a request from a student, I have decided that we will allow CHM 325 to serve as an elective for the BIC major.  This class brings very valuable skills for those who wish to enter industry.  I have also decided not to pursue the inclusion of this course in the list of electives in the catalog, but it makes sense to do so in the future if there are other changes being made. (DAL 2/2026)

Double majors are much easier to achieve than most advisors understand.  Many are confused by the requirement that "Dual majors may be awarded as long as there is a minimum of 60 credits across both majors."  The old language that there needed to be at least 30 non-overlapping credits in each major was especially confusing.  Ultimately, the requirement can be met if the following conditions exist:

• a student meets all of the requirements for both majors.
• the students required coursework can be divided into two lists, one for each major, and the two lists add up to 60 credits
• for courses that overlap (ie. are required for both majors), they simply have to be put on one or the other lists.  For instance, CHM 115 is required for BIC and BMS.  That class can be used for the one list or the other, but not both. 
• Because the CHM and BIC degrees are so credit heavy, it is almost impossible to not meet the "60 total credits in both majors" rule, assuming all requirements for both majors are met.
• [It is not clear if the "30 unduplicated credits in each major" requirement is still operational, but that type of language is still used for minors, so this is still a useful way to think about it]  (DAL 6/2024)

Students who have lecture credit but not lab credit, are quite common:

• Students who score a 5 on the AP exam or receive a 4 on the IB exam or a 65 on the CLEP exam, but who do not have a high-quality laboratory experience have the option of taking just the lab portion of CHM 116. 
• Student who transfer from a school that has separate lecture and lab courses
• Guest students who passed a lecture section but failed the lab and want to take the lab only (usually in the summer) 

The office staff can set up a special section of CHM 180 (1 credit) in which the student can enroll.  The grade they receive will be based solely on the work they do in the lab.  At passing this CHM 180 class, the student can request that the department inform the registrar to grant full CHM 116 credit on the transcript. 

General Chemistry (125/126/127/128) Drop policies

(Adopted by the General Chemistry Instructors November 2025)

When a student repeats a course, the grade they receive for the second attempt will replace the older grade.  The older grade is still visible on the transcript, but it is no longer used to in the GPA calculation.  There are several important considerations:

• If a student gets a lower grade the second time they take the class, the lower grade will replace the higher grade.  This is a fairly common experience, and I know of no exceptions granted by the Registrar to this rule.
• Current policy is that if a student takes a different course with a different course number, the new grade will not replace the old grade, no matter how similar the course.  This is most relevant for students who fail CHM 245 and take CHM 241 instead.  There are exceptions made to this in very rare circumstances--most notably, when a student does not meet the 2.0 GPA in the major and can't graduate.  This is a Dean-level decision and should never be advertised to students. (Note: this policy was updated by the Curriculum Committee in August, 2025--search for "245")
• It is important to note that some graduate programs (notably medical schools) do not exclude grades from repeated classes, but instead average all attempts. (DAL 6/2024)

There is sometimes confusion with regard to the total number of credits needed for the Green Chemistry Certificate. The catalog says "students who seek a certificate in green chemistry are required to complete 12 to 13 credits from the courses as follows..."

After some discussion, Dalila Kovacs explained that this requirement was set up when the minimum credits required for a certificate was 12, but that has now changed.  The current catalog says "Certificate: A certificate is a record of achievement that recognizes a student's completion of a coherent and meaningful academic experience. A certificate includes anywhere from nine to 18 academic credits and is posted to the academic transcript."  Given that the there are three courses of at least three credits each required, plus an additional one credit minimum for a research based course (499, 399, 490 etc), we agreed that 10 credits was acceptable for the certificate going forward (DAL 7/2024)

The University has a fairly defined policy on when incompletes are appropriate, but in reality, we have a bit of flexibility.  If you are not sure if an incomplete is in order, please let me know and I will advise.  If you plan to grant an incomplete, there are 3 simple steps:

• Submit the incomplete via the following form:

           https://www.gvsu.edu/clas/cms-form-edit.htm?formId=D1D036E6-991B-FB81-99565C594BF8147E

           ******When it asks for Unit Head's email, enter [email protected]*******

• Give a grade of I for the final grade for the class.
• Discuss with the student when they would like to make up the material.  Ideally, this should be done fairly quickly, but it could hypothetically be at any time next semester.  Once the work is completed, you resolve the incomplete with a simple grade change form.   (DAL 6/2024)

University policy states that students should resolve their incompletes by the end of the next semester (excluding Spring/Summer).  The Dean's office will remind you of the need to resolve any outstanding incompletes.  There are a few things to consider:

• Despite the above guidelines, there is no enforcement mechanism about resolving an incomplete after one additional semester.  If you feel a student had a good reason to get a further extension, you have full authority to grant that.  I would recommend not letting it go beyond 3-4 semesters though.
• If a student does not respond to your inquiries about resolving their work, you can either give them more time and check again, or resolve to the "work not completed" grade agreed to when the I was granted.  A student cannot graduate with an I on their transcript, so even if they ignore your outreach, they will have to eventually. 
• Sometimes an instructor doesn't hear from a student, they resolve to an F, and then the student comes back and complains or offers an excuse.  If you choose to allow them to complete their work at that point, there is no problem to resolve the F back to a new grade--this is handled quite simply by carrying out a regular grade change.  (DAL 6/2024)

Students have a variety of reasons they might ask for a late withdrawal.  They may act like it is routine and "just requires your signature", but in fact, the department has a set of criteria that must be met before we sign off on it.   In order to make it easier on faculty, we have a made a form that helps us collect the appropriate information.  Please tell students: 

The Chemistry Department has a special form that helps us decide whether we can approve a late withdrawal (it is not automatic).  Please follow the link below and answer all of the questions.  It is important to continue going to class until you receive a written response.  The University has a deadline of 5 pm on the last day of classes, so it is important to submit the department form in advance of that.  

https://www.gvsu.edu/chemhandbook/cms-form-edit.htm?formId=02D1B32F-B9E3-E3EE-0D9AEBA9359DC44E

As the instructor, you do not need to do anything else, but I may contact you for information about grades, attendance etc.  If you have a strong opinion for or against the withdrawal, you can pass that on to me as well.  (DAL 6/2024)

MTH 125 is a survey of calculus that covers both differentiation and integration.  While this class is not equivalent to MTH 201, Chris Lawrence and I discussed whether it could be used as a substitution in certain cases.  We decided that it was appropriate to approve it as a substitution for transfer students or change-of-major students who are BIC majors.  For instance, a CMB student took MTH 125 because that is what that major requires, but later decided to switch to BIC.  We agreed that it is not a good substitution for CHM majors.  We also agreed that it should not be used proactively--that is, we should not approve it for a student who will take MTH 125 in the future.  We also agreed that it should not be advertised to students or professional advisors.  (DAL 12/2024)

Students can be exempted from MTH classes by a wide variety of mechanisms, and these are typically reported in the "Student Profile" tab on MyBanner.  Alexis Schewe reported to me (email 4/1/2025):

Below are the various scores you will see that indicate MTH 122 has been waived.

• Advanced Math Waiver = indicates the reported ACT/SAT scores were high enough to waiver MTH 122+123
• MTH 122 + 123 Satisfied = indicates that the student took AP Calculus. The Math Department allows the math placement to be updated at orientation for any student who took AP Calculus, even if they didnt take the AP Exam and regardless of the AP exam score.  These should be updated at orientation, but occasionally one might get by since its a manual process.
  • If a student indicates they have AP Calculus but it hasnt been officially waived, we can look back at the high school transcripts (if on file) in Slate and confirm. 
• MTH 122 with a score of 999 = indicates the student tested out of MTH 122 via math proficiency test

If a student has these indications, they will not need  pre-requisite waivers for courses that need these classes (ie. CHM 116).   (DAL 6/2025)