FAQs for Faculty - Georgetown College

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FAQs for Faculty

Answers to all your most burning questions

Grading

How does a student get an authorized incomplete grade (N-Grade)?

The N-Grade Form is available in the College Dean's offices (108 White-Gravenor and 303 ICC) for approving an incomplete.  The student should pick up the form, seek the written permission of the professor on the form, and bring it to the dean's office for decanal approval.  Students should be in good standing in the class--this means that the student should have been in regular attendance and done most of the work required in the course.  If a dean objects to approving an N-Grade, the faculty member will be contacted immediately. N-Grades should be granted for meritorious reasons (illness, serious family or personal problems, etc).  The form should detail the agreement reached to postpone an element of the academic work in the course-the final exam may be delayed or the final paper submission date may be set back beyond the end of the semester.  The deadline for N-Grades, by University policy, is March 15 for the student, and March 30 for the professor to report the final grade.  Faculty are free to set deadlines that are earlier than these dates.  
     
The professor reports a grade of "N" for the student in submitting grades for the course to the Registrar.  Once the work is completed, the professor reports the grade to the dean's office, and the final grade is posted on the student's transcript.

While the student ordinarily requests the N-Grade by the last day of class in the semester, and is responsible for executing the paperwork, this can become unworkable in the closing days of the final examination period.  Please contact a dean if you have agreed to give the student an incomplete, and the dean's office can handle the paperwork logistics.

What do I do when the student disappears without explanation?  Does not show for the final exam?  Does not turn in the final paper by the due date?

Please call a member of the College decanal staff and consult on the situation.  The deans are ready to contact the student and certainly to advise about handling the grade.  The deans are eager to know the specifics, so that they are better informed about individual students when they review the academic standing of students in the first week of January.  At that time they must make decisions about academic probation, suspension and dismissal.

Am I obliged to take late work from the student, or to grant a make up exam?

Faculty are NOT obliged to accept late work or to accept explanations offered after the fact which are not credible and not compelling.  It is not appropriate to allow a student to push to resuscitate a very poor situation in a course-multiple absences, no communication, no documentation of claims of illness, irresponsible behavior.  At the same time, we are committed as part of our institutional mission to care for the "whole person," and we should be concerned for those who are suffering genuine problems.  Again, please call a dean and consult.  Let us help you sort out a good solution.

Can I leave a grade blank, and simply not report a grade for a student?  Can I report a grade later than the grading period for an individual student?

Each semester, the Registrar has established a due date for grades for the term.  Once you submit the grades in your courses, if there is a grade missing for a particular student, the Registrar will assign an administrative failing grade if there is no authorized N-Grade reported from the dean's office, and no indication that the student withdrew from the course.  The grade will be regarded as a failing grade in terms of academic probation, suspension and dismissal.  Again, the dean's office wants to know the basic facts.  Did the student disappear from view early in the semester?  Approximately when?  Did the student do everything in the course, and was a "good citizen" up until some final piece of work?  Is this a registration error, a failure to withdraw from the course, or an incomplete, without proper arrangements or authorization?  Should this simply be a failing grade, and the matter closed as a failing grade assigned by the professor?  Grades cannot remain "blank."  The deans will labor to resolve all such "loose ends" within the standard framework for authorized incompletes-by no later than early March.

Conflict final exams

Students who have two exams scheduled for the same final exam time slot, or three exams in the same calendar day, or three exams in sucessive time slots may elect to take one of their exams during the Conflict Final Exam period. The College Dean's Office notifies the faculty member of the students who will take the Conflict Exam, collects the exam from the professor, and proctors the exam. Faculty are asked to pick up the completed exam from the College Dean's Office in 108 White-Gravenor after the exam is completed.

Georgetown College108 White-Gravenor, Georgetown University, Washington, DC 20057 Phone: 202.687.4043Fax: 202.687.7290
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