From :        Kristin Cohen Vice President for Enrollment Management

To :              William Paterson Faculty

Date :          May 07, 2013

Subject :     Spring 2013 Grading

Congratulations on the completion of the spring 2013 semester!  I am sure that you are enjoying the final days of your classes, whether that is helping students to prepare for final exams, reading papers, reviewing projects, or listening to student presentations.  The end of the semester is an exciting time and I know we are all looking forward to a wonderful summer.

I wanted to take this opportunity to speak with you briefly about an important topic – grading.  In the past few days you should have received an email from the Office of Registration Services concerning the process of submitting grades.  I just wanted to reiterate the importance of this process.  There are always a few questions that get raised at this time of year.  Some of these questions can have implications for more than just the student’s transcript or grade point average.  In some cases, grades and the timely submission of those grades can impact a student’s financial aid, student bill, graduation and ability to register for the next semester.  Also, students need to know how they did in your course to decide if taking a summer course might be the best next step. 

Some of the following may be familiar to you and some may not, but I wanted to go over a few implications of the grading process with you as you begin to submit grades for your classes:

1. Students are required to have grades submitted for all classes for which they are enrolled. 
2. If a grade is left blank, the university is required to assume that the student did not complete the work of that class or unofficially withdrew from that course.  In the past, the university has changed missing or “M” grades to Fs if they haven’t been changed to an official grade within 30 days after the start of the next semester.  Unfortunately, that practice places the university at risk of not being in compliance with federal regulations regarding the determination of student enrollment in a course for the purpose of financial aid.  Therefore, William Paterson University will be changing all blank or “M” grades on a student’s transcript to an “F” grade within 21 days of the end of the semester in which the course was taken.
3. If a student has left the course before completing a sufficient amount of work to be eligible for a passing grade, or if the student’s work in that course was not sufficient to earn a passing grade, the grade for that course should be entered as an “F”. Along with the F grade, you will be prompted to enter the last date the student attended your class.  It is very important that an accurate estimate of the last date the student attended the class be entered in this field.
4. If you feel that a student just needs more time in which to complete outstanding work for the course, you are encouraged to utilize the Incomplete (IN) grade. This will give the student 30 days until after the start of the next semester to complete that work before the grade converts to an “F”.
5. Grades should be submitted by the grade due date.  Any grades not submitted within 21 days of the end of the semester will be automatically assigned an “F” grade.
6. Any student who has an F grade automatically assigned as a course grade will be able to have that grade changed by the faculty through the grade change process.
7. Students who did not successfully complete any of the courses for which they registered may lose their financial aid based on the last date that the university can determine that they were enrolled in those courses.

I hope that this message has helped to clarify some of the issues surrounding the grading process and how grades might impact things like financial aid.  If you have any questions about the points raised in this memo, please do not hesitate to let me know.

If you have any trouble with the submission of the grades for your courses, please get in touch with the Office of Registration Services as soon as possible.

Again, congratulations on the completion of the spring semester and I hope you have a wonderful summer.  I look forward to seeing you on campus or at graduation.