This petition's intent seeks to make the following alterations to GMU's Sona System requirements for students in a course requiring research credits (PSYC 100, 300, and 301) and researchers:

1. All students must earn half their required credits by the mid-point of the semester.

2. Lecture alternatives are no longer a requirement for researchers to provide.

3. Lecture alternatives will be replaced by a research paper requirement as the new alternative.

These changes are being proposed for several reasons. (1) The timing shift prevents a rush of the system at the end of the semester and helps researchers anticipate whether they will be able to collect enough data to complete their projects over the course of the semester; this includes thesis and dissertation-linked projects. (2) A writing alternative supports the Psychology Department's "writing intensive" effort and encourages students to think analytically about different research content. (3) A writing alternative successfully minimizes the difficulty students who are remote (online course members), work full-time, and are underage face obtaining research credits. (4) Each course requiring credit is typically assigned a TA or grading TA who can aid in grading the papers if students choose it as an alternative. (5) Lastly, several universities use this system and find success over the typical lecture alternative requirement. This includes the University of Kentucky, Princeton University, University of South Carolina, Purdue University, University of California Davis, University of Florida, University of Michigan, Columbia University, and University of California Los Angeles - just to name a few. Using a model that is established as effective and streamlined by several other universities should help address the concerns the system is currently facing.