Alternative Grades

Audits: Audited courses appear on the transcript with either a grade of T (successful audit) or N (unsuccessful audit). Students who audit courses receive no college credit and grades for audited courses do not affect the student’s GPA.

Any student may audit a course. Students auditing a course should attend class, but do not have to complete assignments. A student who finds it necessary to drop an audited course may do so at any time during the semester, and no record of the audited course will appear on the transcript. Financial obligations still apply.

Students may not audit courses in which individual instruction from a faculty member is fundamental to the class. Courses that may not be audited include, but are not limited to: Independent Studies, Practica or Internships, Research, Thesis, or Student Teaching.

Incompletes: A student may request or faculty may assign grades of I when work for a course is incomplete at the end of the term and the cause of the delay was out of the student’s control (i.e. illness, accident, family emergency, etc.). The awarding of an I is not given for simple negligence or inability to complete the work on time. Incompletes may only be given when the instructor and the student have arrived at a plan for work to be completed. A Grade Completion Contract, a written plan for completion of all work, must be submitted to the Records Office at the end of the term. The grade may be changed to any other grade by the end of the following semester or term. Unless the instructor submits another grade based on previously submitted coursework, a grade of F will automatically be assigned.

Students have one semester to complete work from a prior term. (Incompletes granted at the end of the spring semester are due at the end of the summer term, etc.) The registrar must approve extensions beyond the close of the following term. Extensions beyond a second semester require documentation of extenuating circumstances which maybe include a letter from a doctor or an obituary.

Pass/Fail Courses: Some courses such as student teaching or other practica are graded on a pass/fail basis. Students may also elect to take other courses on a pass/fail basis. This option may be used in only one course per year, and the course may not be a general education requirement or part of the student's major. To take a course on this basis, a form must be filled out in the Records Office during the first two weeks of the semester.

A passing grade is indicated by the letter S (for satisfactory), and may be assigned when academic work was at least at the B level. A failing grade is indicated by the letter U (for unsatisfactory) and indicates work at the F or C level. All courses recorded with S grades count toward graduation; courses with U grades do not. In either case, the credits do not affect the GPA.

Withdrawals: Students withdrawing from a course receive a grade of W regardless of the quality of their work.