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. At mid-semester the Registrar will generate a Mid-Semester Course Warning Report for each class and forward it to professors. Professors should complete the report by checking the appropriate boxes for each student experiencing problems and returning the completed report to the Registrar by the deadline indicated. The Registrar will forward the reports to the appropriate administrative advisers who will 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 one-term course includes one or two in-class hour examinations and a final examination given at the time scheduled by the Registrar. Other courses and seminars use different patterns of examinations and short quizzes. 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 seminars, a two-hour final examination is required of all students in all courses, unless permission has been given by the division director to omit the final examination. Requests for waiving the final examination in a course should be made in writing to the department chair, with a statement of the rationale for the waiver. The department chair will forward the request with a recommendation to the division director.

The times for final examinations are scheduled by the Registrar, who tries to insure a minimum of scheduling conflicts. No changes can be made in the printed examination schedule without the permission of the Dean of the Faculty. Final examinations may not be scheduled on the last day of classes or during the "review period" without the explicit permission of the Dean of the Faculty.

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 dean to intervene with the instructor(s), and faculty members are asked to cooperate with such a request for a student who has three final examinations scheduled in a single day. 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. 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 dean 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. Final grades for seniors who expect to graduate at the end of a term must be reported to the Registrar within 48 hours after the final examination in a course or, if no final examination is scheduled, 24 hours after the final day of the examination period (or sooner). Grades for Independent Study Projects are due on the third day of the examination 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 dean, 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 dean 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 dean; 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.

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 and no later than the end of the regularly scheduled period for honors and high honors examinations (the regular examination period) in the spring term if the student completes his or her graduation requirements in that term. University honors are based on the final grade point average.

9. Satisfactory­Unsatisfactory (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 satisfactory/unsatisfactory 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 satisfactory/unsatisfactory basis.

c. Liberal Arts Core Curriculum courses when taken toward the fulfillment of the general education requirement may not be taken under the satisfactory/unsatisfactory option. Also courses taken toward the fulfillment of a concentration and distribution requirements may not be taken satisfactory/unsatisfactory.

d. The choice to take a particular course under satisfactory/unsatisfactory 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.

e. In the event of limited enrollment possibilities, a student's desire to take a course on a satisfactory/unsatisfactory basis shall not be a criterion in determining his or her eligibility for the courses or section.

f. To achieve the grade of satisfactory, the student must perform at a level that would warrant a grade of C- or better in an A through F grading system.

g. Satisfactory completion of a course shall be entered on the student's permanent transcript as an S (satisfactory), but shall in no way enter the computation of the grade point average. The same procedure shall apply to the unsatisfactory completion of a course. The unsatisfactory completion of a course is entered on the student's transcript as a U, and no course credit will be awarded.

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.