D. Grading Policies

1. Grading In all Colgate courses, the final grades used to indicate the quality of the student’s performance are as follows: A means excellent, B means good, C means satisfactory, D means poor but passing, F means failing. Final course grades reported to the Registrar must be recorded as follows: A+, A, A–, B+, B, B–, C+, C, C–, D+, D, D–, F, S, U, W, or I. Policies governing the grades of S, U, W, and I are explained below.

2. Course Warnings Any student experiencing academic difficulties in a course should be identified and counseled by the professor well in   advance of the end of the course. The student’s administrative adviser should also be advised as he/she also tracks the student’s academic performance. Prior to mid-semester, instructors will have access via the faculty dashboard to the mid-semester warning form. Professors should complete the report by checking the appropriate boxes for each student experiencing problems, then submit it electronically to the Office of the Dean of the College by the deadline indicated. The appropriate administrative advisers send a formal course warning to the student and his/her faculty adviser. The course warning system is relatively easy to administer and provides valuable information to the student that can result in dramatic improvement in academic performance.

3. Completion of Student Work in Courses Work in all courses, including independents, must be completed by the last day of classes, so that faculty can grade papers and students can study during the review period prior to exams.

4. Examinations A normal pattern of examinations in a course includes one or two in-class hour examinations and a final examination or its equivalent. Other courses and seminars may use additional modes of evaluation, including take-home exams, reflective essays, individual or group projects, homework assignments, research papers, oral presentations, or examinations, etc. Whatever the pattern, it is important that all students, especially first-year students and sophomores, be given adequate periodic assessments of their work during the term, so that they are aware of the progress they are making or of the academic difficulties they are experiencing.

Except in senior seminars, a two-hour final examination or its equivalent is required of all students in all courses. During reading and exam period students should be able to devote their full attention to final examinations; therefore, all other work for a course, including research and seminar papers, work for independent study courses, and other assignments or projects must be due no later than 5:00 p.m. on the final day of classes. The final exam or its equivalent must be given during the exam period and not during the final week of classes.

The final exam or its equivalent should normally be cumulative and/or integrative. Instructors who give a traditional two-hour final exam must do so either by giving the exam at the time set by the Registrar or by allowing students to take self-scheduled exams. Traditional two-hour final exams may not be scheduled at other times without the permission of the associate dean of the faculty. The Office of the Associate Dean of the Faculty provides administrative support for self-scheduled finals.

Faculty who choose a format other than a two-hour final should be mindful of the burdens that alternative formats might impose. In general, alternative formats should achieve the same purposes, allowing students to demonstrate cumulative and integrative mastery of course material, while not imposing overall time demands on students that exceed those of studying for and taking a traditional final. Faculty who wish to give written, and untimed, take-home exams, or reflective final assignments, are strongly encouraged to observe the following guidelines. Take-home exams should normally: be due on the final exam date scheduled by the Registrar; be distributed at least one week prior to the due date; not require more than minimal reading or research beyond the class syllabus; and be of reasonable length, e.g., 2000 words maximum, or less if the final exam is part take-home and part in traditional format. Other formats should follow the spirit of these rules. In particular, oral presentations or examinations should be scheduled flexibly to accommodate students’ final exam week workloads.

It is a general rule that a student who has three final examinations scheduled in a single day has a right to request that he or she be allowed to take one of them at a different time. This is usually accomplished informally with a request to one of the instructors involved. In some cases the student may ask his or her administrative advisor to intervene with the instructor(s), and faculty members are asked to cooperate with such a request. If the problem cannot be resolved in this manner, it will be referred to the Associate Dean of the Faculty, who will determine which of the student’s three examinations will be rescheduled.

Except in the unusual case of a student having three examinations scheduled in a single day, however, students are expected to take the final examinations in their courses at the regularly scheduled times. Students should not make end-of-semester travel plans prior to the publication of the final exam schedule (or should schedule travel for after the end of the final exam period). Faculty members are strongly discouraged from giving “make-up” or special final examinations for students except in very unusual cases and for compelling reasons.

It is requested that faculty members inform a student’s administrative adviser if the student fails to appear for a scheduled final examination in a course.

5. Reporting Final Grades Final grades for all students are to be reported on the official final class lists distributed by the Registrar for that purpose or online through the Faculty Dashboard for the class. Final grades for seniors who expect to graduate at the end of a term are due by 9 a.m. on the Monday following the exam period. Final grades for all other students are due in the Registrar’s Office by the date specified in the memorandum accompanying the final class list. Late grades create undue problems for students, the Committee on Standards and Academic Standing, and numerous offices which rely on academic results. They must be conscientiously avoided. All special arrangements which have to be made for the submission of grades must be made through the department chair in advance of the deadline.

Final grades are officially reported to students by the Registrar only after all grades have been submitted by the faculty. It is therefore extremely important that instructors adhere to the Registrar’s specified deadlines for submission of final course grades.

6. Incompletes The University’s policy on “incompletes” is contained in the section on “Academic Regulations” in the Colgate University Catalogue. The last sentence in the statement below was added to the Catalogue statement by the Dean’s Advisory Council in May 1982.

The temporary status of “incomplete” in a course is given only when the student has not finished the work in the course. It is used rarely and only for sufficient cause, such as illness or absence necessitated by emergency. A student’s request for an incomplete, which should be made in advance, must be directed to his or her administrative advisor, who will consult with the instructor in the course before approving the request. An incomplete must be made up within 20 days of the end of the term in which it was granted, unless an extension has been granted by the student’s administrative advisor as a consequence of extenuating circumstances beyond the student’s ability to predict or control. The instructor will submit a grade to the Registrar within 10 days of the date the make-up is completed, or, if the make-up is not completed, submit the appropriate grade to the Registrar within 10 days of the final day granted by the student’s administrative advisor; otherwise the incomplete is converted to an F.

7. Changes of Grade Once a grade has been reported to the Registrar (or converted from an incomplete to an F), an instructor who wishes to request a change of grade for a student must obtain the approval of the Associate Dean of the Faculty. Requests for a grade change must be based on reevaluation of work completed by the student during the term and not additional work completed after the end of the term.

The request for a change of grade should be made in writing to the Associate Dean of the Faculty with an explanation of the reason for requesting the change of grade. The request should be accompanied by a Special Grade Report Card (available in department offices or from the Registrar), which must be signed by the instructor and the department chair (signifying departmental approval) before it is sent to the Associate Dean. If the request for a change of grade is approved, the Associate Dean will inform the Registrar who will make the change in the student’s official records. See also Chapter IV, Section E.2, Review of a Grade.

Grades appearing on a student's academic record may normally not be changed after one semester from the end of the term in which the grade was awarded. Under extraordinary circumstances, appeals for grade changes beyond one semester but before graduation may be made to the associate dean of the faculty.

8. Academic Honors A description of the academic honors awarded at Colgate may be found in the section on “Academic Regulations” in the Colgate University Catalogue.

Reporting honors and high honors to the Registrar is the responsibility of the department chair or concentration program director. Because a number of students complete graduation requirements at times other than May, the Dean’s Advisory Council has issued the following ruling regarding the dates for reporting of honors and high honors to the Registrar:

Departments must report honors and high honors to the Registrar no later than five calendar days after the end of the fall semester examination period if the student completes his or her graduation requirements in the fall term. If the student completes his or her graduation requirements in the spring term, the department must inform the Registrar no later than the end of the regular examination period. University honors are based on the final grade point average.

9. Satisfactory–Unsatisfactory (S/U) Option This option is designed to encourage students to explore new areas outside their concentration in the true spirit of a liberal education.

Students with junior and senior standing, who have been accepted in a concentration, may elect to take up to four courses which are evaluated “satisfactory” or “unsatisfactory” instead of by the usual letter grades. The following conditions apply to this option.

a. The decision to use the S/U option rests with the student and is restricted to students with junior or senior standing.

b. A student may take no more than one course per term on a S/U basis.

c. A student on academic warning may not use the S/U option.

d. Courses in the Common Core, when taken toward the fulfillment of the Common Core requirement, may not be taken under the S/U option. Also courses used to fulfill the Global Engagements requirement, the areas of inquiry/distribution requirement, the language requirement, the writing requirement, and the major or minor requirements may not be taken S/U.

e. The choice to take a particular course under S/U must be made prior to the end of the drop/add period and must be officially recorded by the student with the Office of the Registrar. The use of the satisfactory/unsatisfactory option will be indicated on all class lists distributed to faculty.

f. In the event of a course’s limited enrollment, a student’s desire to take a course on a S/U basis shall not be a criterion in determining his or her eligibility for the courses or section.

g. To achieve the grade of S, the student must perform at a level that would warrant a grade of C– or better.

h. Satisfactory completion of a course is entered on the student’s permanent transcript as an S, but does not enter into the computation of the grade point average. Unsatisfactory completion of a course is entered on the student’s transcript as a U, but does not enter into the computation of the GPA. No course credit is awarded for a grade of U

i. Seniors, during their final semester, should not take a course using the S/U option unless they will have a total of 32 course credits without the S/U course.

10. Other Academic Rules and Regulations Other academic rules and regulations may be found in the section on “Academic Regulations” in the Colgate University Catalogue or in other sections of the Catalogue.