Chapter VI Contents: [ VI.1 L&S Student Academic Affairs ] [ VI.2 L&S SAA Staff ] [ VI.3 Academic Advancement Program ] [ VI.4 L&S Undergraduate Academic Services ] [ VI.5 Bradley Learning Community ] [ VI.6 Cross-College Advising Service ] [ VI.7 Letters and Science Career Services ] [ VI.8 S.O.A.R. ] [ VI.9 Student Records ] [ VI.10 Degree Audit Reporting System ] [ VI.11 Academic Misconduct ] [ VI.12 Accommodation of Religious Belief ] [ VI.13 Policy & Guidelines on Nondiscrimination ] [ VI.14 Summary Blocks/Final Exams ] [ VI.15 Multi-Section Courses ] [ VI.16 Chadbourne Residential College ] [ VI.17 Deleted Section] [ VI.18 First-Year Interest Groups ] [ VI.19 Pathways to Excellence Programs and Services ] [ VI.20 African American Student Academic Services ] [ VI.21 American Indian Student Academic Services ] [ VI.22 Chicano/a Student Academic Services ] [ VI.23 Southeast Asian American Student Academic Services] [ VI.24 Summer Collegiate Experience ] [ VI.25 Undergraduate Research Scholars ] [ VI.26 Grading Policies ] [ VI.27 The Grading System ] [ VI.28 Grade Change Procedure ] [ VI.29 Student Appeals of Grading ] [ VI.30 Grade Disputes ] [ VI.31 Distinction: in the Major, in the Thesis ] [ VI.32 Scholarships ] [ VI.33 Major Declaration Form ]

• E-Grading. Instructors submit grades via My UW-Madison. The Registrar's Office provides a set of instructions (including a tutorial) for instructors and department personnel at http://registrar.wisc.edu/faculty/grades/gradeinstr/ . Each night, a process is run that posts the grades for all grade rosters submitted to the Office of the Registrar during the previous day. Once the grades are posted, students can immediately look up their grades via My UW Madison.
  
• Deadlines. Final grades are due no later than 96 hours after the final examination. The Registrar's Office warns that "It is critical that this deadline is met. Late submission of grades results in restrictive academic actions on students that can have myriad negative impacts. Further, late grade rosters can not be processed. Any grades submitted after the deadline will need to be processed as if they were grade changes, using individual Grade Change Forms for each student."
  
• Letter Grades A Through F. The authorized letter grades and their values on the 4-point scale are: A(4.0), AB(3.5), B(3.0), BC(2.5), C(2.0), D(1.0), and F(0).
  
• The Pass/Fail Option. For courses taken under the Pass/Fail option, the grade of S shall be recorded by the Registrar in place of instructor's grades of A, AB, B, BC, or C. The grade of U will be recorded in place of the instructor's grades of D or F and no credit will be granted. Neither S nor U will affect the student's grade point average.  The Pass/Fail option is open only to those students with a 2.5 grade point average who request this option by the end of the fourth week of classes of the semester in question. Please note that the Pass/Fail deadline for Summer Sessions is the Friday of the week in which the session is one-fourth completed, and these deadlines or rules cannot be changed by individual faculty members or instructors. Identities of students selecting the Pass/Fail option are not made known to the course instructor. Only elective work may be carried on a Pass/Fail basis; students may not take any requirement or any course in their major department on a Pass/Fail basis.
  
• The Credit/No Credit Provision. Some courses are graded on a credit/no credit basis, rather than on a letter grade basis. Grades of CR (credit) or NC (no credit) do not affect a student's grade point average.
  
• Grade Records. Departments have the responsibility of maintaining records that will enable them to assist in the resolution of Incompletes and to answer questions and complaints about grades, their accuracy, and their appropriateness. This is particularly important in the case of temporary staff members, staff members who will be away during the summer, and faculty members who may be away from campus on leave. In such cases it is advisable for the department to have grade books or other records available.
  
• Retaining Records Related to Grades. The Office of the Registrar Retention Disposition Authorization states, regarding grade books, that the department must retain faculty records of grades for 5 years, regardless of format or medium in those grades are maintained (http://archives.library.wisc.edu/records/schedules/GRS_StudentRec.pdf, RDA #1352). Source documents for final grades (e.g., blue books, term papers, written projects or other documents submitted in lieu of final papers) that have not been returned to students should be retained for one semester, then destroyed (http://archives.library.wisc.edu/records/schedules/GRS_StudentRec.pdf, RDA #1353).
  
• Incompletes. Incompletes should be used sparingly--only when a student requests one and only when the faculty member in charge of the course knows that: (1) the student missed only a limited amount of work and can be expected to complete the work by the four-week deadline; (2) the student was unable to complete all of the work on time for reasons beyond the student's control; and (3) the student performed at least satisfactorily on the completed work. 

An instructor who assigns an incomplete is responsible for offering a way for the work to be completed. It is never appropriate to have a student complete an incomplete by repeating the course in a subsequent semester without registering, whether or not the repeated course has the same instructor. That approach adds an unofficial course to the student's workload, defers resolution of the incomplete beyond college deadlines, wastes university resources, and sometimes displaces the burden of resolving the incomplete onto another instructor.  Reporting incompletes that are inappropriate causes serious problems for both students and faculty.

An instructor who is in doubt as to whether or not to report an Incomplete should be encouraged to call L&S Student Academic Affairs (262-5858) to discuss the situation and possible alternatives.

Incompletes should be resolved as soon as possible and must be removed by the end of the fourth week of classes of the student's next semester in residence. An instructor who expects to be off campus during a student's next semester should arrange with a colleague to evaluate the completed work in time to meet the four-week deadline. Extensions of the deadline are discouraged. If circumstances beyond the student's control prevent him or her from completing the work by the four-week deadline, a deadline extension may be requested from the instructor. If approved, the Incomplete is changed to an Extended Incomplete (EI). Faculty members may ask students to bring campus copies of their transcripts as part of the review to extend the Incomplete.

If a faculty member decides that a student's circumstances warrant an Extended Incomplete (EI), the professor will complete a grade change form, have it signed by the Department Chair, and forward it to 70 Bascom Hall. No longer is it necessary to write a letter to Student Academic Affairs. Generally speaking, it is best for both student and instructor if the Incomplete is removed before the next semester begins.

A student need not be enrolled in order to remove an Incomplete

• No Work Notation: In September 1993, the Faculty Senate adopted a policy that discontinued the practice of recording as a grade of "F" the notation of "not attending" on the Grade List. A new grade of "NW" (No Work), which remains permanently on the student's record, was approved.

The NW notation should be used for a student who enrolls in a course and then never attends. "No Work" in this context means that the instructor has no evidence that the student ever attended and that no course work has ever been submitted. Any student who does attend for part of the semester and then stops participating should be given a grade of "F" unless there are grounds for assignment of a grade of "I" (incomplete).

This policy, adopted on recommendation of the Letters and Science Faculty Senate, resulted from widespread faculty and Student Academic Affairs staff concern that the previous procedure imposed an excessively harsh sanction on a student who inadvertently failed to complete an administrative drop action for a course for which she or he was once registered.

• Repeating Courses. Current (May, 1980) legislation permits undergraduate students to repeat any course with all grades (A through F) and their associated grade points included in the grade point average, but with credits counted only once. Repeating a failed course does not remove the earlier failure from the student's record or from his or her cumulative GPA. A course failed in residence at UW-Madison may be repeated for credit at another institution.
  
  
• Audit. A student may audit a course only if the professor in charge of the course approves. Courses with laboratory or performance skills may not be audited without approval of the course instructor and the chair of the department in which the course is offered and the Associate Dean for Student Academic Affairs. A change from an audit to a credit basis must be made by the deadline for adding courses. A change from a credit to an audit basis must be made by the end of the fourth week of classes. For students who do audit a course, the letter "S" is entered on the transcript and the course does not earn credit or affect the GPA. Students do pay fees as though the course were on a credit basis, however. In almost all cases, an undergraduate student should be advised not to audit but to take the course on a credit basis, or if the student has already taken the course, to repeat the course on a refresher basis.

Last reviewed:  August 16, 2006