Grading Policy: Effective April 2004 - May 2019
In February 2003, Academic Council acknowledged the inconsistency between the college's legislated grading standards and current grading practices. In April 2004, and again in February 2008, and in April 2011, the faculty voted in favor of specific measures to address this inconsistency and reaffirm the college's grading standards. The policies in effect are:
- The mean grade in 100-level and 200-level courses with 10 or more students should be no higher than 3.33 (B+). For the purposes of calculating the mean grade, instructors should submit a letter grade for all students listed on the course grade sheet (including students electing the course credit/no credit);
- Instructors of courses with a mean above 3.33 should submit an explanation to the chair of the Committee on Curriculum and Academic Policy (CCAP). If the high average grade is due to students' withdrawal from the course late in the semester or Incompletes that remain unresolved, the instructor should calculate a mean that includes estimated grades for students who withdrew or had incomplete work;
- The chair of the CCAP will report to Council each semester on the grades recorded in the prior semester, such reports to include the distribution of grades by course level and by department and, if applicable, the reasons that course grades exceeded the B+ maximum. These data should be discussed at least annually in academic department meetings;
- CCAP and the deans should work together with the Career Education and advisors for professional and graduate study to communicate our standards and values to recruiting companies and graduate institutions;
- The president and dean of the college should meet with department chairs and/or individual faculty members when grades are consistently above those mandated by this policy;
- The dean of the college will inform all new faculty of this policy.
This policy was revoked in May 2019.