FACULTY GRADE SUBMISSION POLICY

Submitted by James Mulrooney

In response to the charge by Faculty President C. Barrington to examine the grade submission policy, below is a proposal for an adjustment of the current policy.

CURRENT POLICY:

The current policy is based on the AAUP contract (below).  Grades are submitted through Banner/Pipeline beginning on the first day of the exam period and extending to 3 working days past the last final, which is typically held on Saturday.

The AAUP Contract pg 13 of the 2007-2011:

4.2.2.2 The determination of grades is the responsibility of the instructor of the course. A corollary of this responsibility is the duty of instructors to submit grades to the University Registrar within prescribed time limits. In no case shall an instructor be required to submit final grades in less than three (3) working days from the date of the last scheduled final exam. A grade shall be changed only with the consent of the instructor of the course and with the approval of the appropriate Chief Academic Officer or Dean, except that, in cases of absence of the instructor or of a palpable injustice, the appropriate method of adjusting grades established by the Senate in each university, in agreement with the President, shall be followed. If a grade is changed, the instructor shall be notified whenever possible.

PROPOSED POLICY:

The new policy would extend the timeframe for grade submission from the end of the 3^rd working day to the end of the 5^th working day past the last final exam. 

Grades are to be submitted by the end of the 5^th working day past the last scheduled final exam.  Faculty who fail to submit final grades by the end of the 5^th working day past the last scheduled final exam will be notified by email, which will also be cc’d to the Provost, the faculty member’s appropriate Dean and department chairperson for appropriate action. 

NOTE: Grad Studies has requested that, if policy is approved, they would like its effectiveness assessed.  Similar to the last bullet below, they would like the Registrar’s office to report out the total number of late submissions to determine if the policy is effective in obtaining its goal.

Consequences of LATE  Submission

1.  Especially true for Fall grades, many faculty disappear for the winter break, making it difficult for the Registrar’s office to track down those that failed to turn in grades or to make corrections when errors are detected.

2.  The later the due date for grades, the later grades will get rolled.  This is especially true if faculty continue to submit grades after the deadline.  For example this past fall semester the faculty were given until Monday, December 29 to enter grades yet a  significant percentage of faculty failed to submit  their grades until  Friday Jan 1^st. resulting in grades being unavailable until Monday, January 5.   .

                Potential Impacts:

·         Delayed  production of academic probation and dismissal materials resulting in a very limited time for the Dean’s to meet with the students involved to establish a plan of action.

·         Delays in producing Dean’s List data.

o   Delayed reimbursement to students who require grades for reimbursement. Without the reimbursement some students may not have the funds to pay their bill by the due date, resulting in an increased number of students with holds on their records that cannot process withdrawals or add/drops.

·         Delayed processing of academic transcripts for employment, graduate school, etc.

·         Delays in clearing students for graduation and verifying such information for external inquiries.

·         Delayed dropping of students from courses who did not satisfactorily complete a prerequisite. (For example a student who earns below a C- in MATH 101 would not satisfy the prereqs for many other MATH classes for which he or she may be registered for, thus opening a seat in this class)

·         Delay in dropping dismissed students from their classes and releasing course seats for Add/Drop.

·         The manual input of any grades submitted after the grades are rolled.  There were 1,971 grades missing on the extended due date of December 29.  The manual input requires the individual recalculation of each student’s GPA, probation/dismissal status and Dean’s List eligibility.