• Transfer students often bring in a lecture or lab component but not both.  To receive full credit for one of these courses, they must take both lecture and lab, or we need to make a special lab-only or lecture-only special topics class (CHM 180 or CHM 280) to take the missing component.  This creates a large bureaucratic workload, and is very confusing to the transfer student.
• When students fail one of these classes, they must retake both lecture and lab.  The new system will provide students the option to repeat only the portion of the class that they failed (or wish to improve).  The new system will allow students to potentially save time and money, and hopefully improve time-to-graduation.

For the most part no.  There may be some minor changes in the lab components, but these will not affect the broad track of the four courses as they exist in current curricula.

The prerequisites for the new lecture and lab components will be the same as they are for the combined parent course.  Additionally, the lecture and lab will be corequisites for each other.  Transfer students who need a single component will be granted prerequisite waivers as appropriate.  

Future CHM 125/CHM 126 grades will replace older CHM 115 grades (and likewise for the other classes).  Important note: in order to eliminate a CHM 115 grade from the transcript, the student must take both CHM 125 and CHM 126.

Students who take CHM 125/126 can use it in place of CHM 115 from older catalogs (and likewise for the other classes).

All transfer equivalencies will need to be updated, and this will be carried out by the Chemistry Department in Summer 2025 for heavily used transfer institutions (MI community colleges, state universities and private colleges).  All other transfer courses will be evaluated at the time they are presented by incoming students (as is currently the case).  Aside from the fact that students will now be able to transfer lectures and labs, these changes are not expected to lead to any changes in the equivalencies with respect to the course contents.  The Chemistry department will be available for discussions with all departments and programs to ensure that incoming students are impacted as little as possible.  Appeals to course equivalencies are always possible through use of the Student Concern Forms available through the Student Academic Success Center (as they have been in the past). 

• As more GVSU programs began to require (or allow) CHM 230 in their curriculum, enrollment in CHM 232 has plummeted.
• Over the years, the instructors of CHM 230 have started focusing more on the limited organic chemistry that is needed to cover biochemistry content, and less on the some of the organic content detail.  This has led to CHM 232 and CHM 230 becoming more similar than in the past.
• Having two tracks of Allied Health biochemistry (109→230 and 109→231→232) has led to many problems for students who change majors.  The new system will potentially improve time-to-graduation for a large number of students.

CHM 231 will still be taught.  Most Allied Health students will take CHM 109/234.   A few programs will require CHM 109/231/234.

CHM 234 prerequisites will be CHM 109 or both CHM 125* and CHM 126*, or equivalent.

***Note:  CHM 125/126 are the new course numbers for General Chemistry I after the split of CHM 115 into lecture and lab components.

The registrar will be changing instances of CHM 230 and CHM 232 requirements and prerequisites to CHM 234 en masse.  This will negate the need for program changes.

Future CHM 234 grades will replace older CHM 230 or CHM 232 grades.

Students who take CHM 234 can use it in place of CHM 230 or CHM 232 from older catalogs.

All transfer equivalencies will need to be updated, and this will be carried out by the Chemistry Department in Summer 2025 for heavily used transfer institutions (MI community colleges, state universities and private colleges).  

For courses that currently receive CHM 232 credit, it is expected that they will qualify for CHM 234 equivalency.  Many CHM 230 transfer courses will also qualify, but they will likely need more scrutiny to ensure that they contain sufficient biochemistry content.  All other transfer courses will be evaluated at the time they are presented by incoming students (as is currently the case).  The Chemistry department will be available for discussions with all departments and programs to ensure that incoming students are impacted as little as possible.  Appeals to course equivalencies are always possible through use of the Student Concern Forms available through the Student Academic Success Center (as they have been in the past).