Reporting Final Grades

Deadline for Submitting Final Grades

The deadline for submitting final grades is one week after the last day of classes.  Please refer to the faculty calendar for the current semester’s grade deadlines.

Extensions and Incompletes

Final portfolios should be due before the study period each semester. CAS specifically prohibits faculty from requiring work to be submitted during the study period. You may, at your discretion, grant students extensions up to the day that your final grades are due (one week after your last class). A student requiring an extension beyond that point is a candidate for an incomplete. Please consult with the directors.

Incomplete grades are typically given to students who experience some situation at the end of the semester that prevents them from finishing a course. They are intended for students who have completed the bulk of their work but require some additional time to finish up. They are not intended for students who have failed to complete a significant amount of course work during the semester. In other words, incomplete grades are not licenses to retake a course as an independent study. For the full CAS policy on incomplete grades, visit here.

Incomplete grades should be kept to a minimum. If you have a student whose situation warrants an incomplete, you may allow the student to complete an incomplete form* and assign that student an “I” (incomplete) in place of a final grade. The incomplete form is a contract for the student to complete the work and must be signed by both the student and the instructor.

Please consult with one of the directors if you find it necessary to submit a grade of “I” for any student. In most cases, arrangements for an incomplete will have been made well in advance of the end of the semester. Please do not wait to submit grades because of a single student who has not submitted work.

Grade Changes

Please keep grade changes to a minimum. After the end of the semester, grades should be changed for procedural reasons only (e.g., error in calculation). A final grade should not be changed because you have reevaluated a student’s work after the end of the semester.

The expectation is that the grade you report at the end of the semester represents your best effort to arrive at a fair and accurate judgment. Do not submit a provisional grade to be revised upon completion of course assignments. You cannot grant extensions beyond the end of the semester. If a student requires such an extension, the student should petition for an incomplete (see above).

How to Change a Grade in MyBU

Faculty should change their own grades in MyBU when possible. Instructors have access to change grades from approximately one week before the last week of classes through to the end of the following term. For example, grade changes for Fall 2024 courses can be made from early December 2024 through late April 2025. Grade changes after this deadline require administrative approval, and WR faculty will need to submit requests to the Writing Program’s Academic Administrator, who will then submit them to CAS Advising for processing (see below for instructions).

To enact a grade change in MyBU, the instructor of record should access their Grade Roster in MyBU Student, select the relevant term and class section, and then click on the icon with the horizontal dots in the upper-right corner of the screen. A popup window will provide the instructor with an option to “Request Grade Change.” See screenshot below.

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The grade roster for the entire class will appear in a new screen. The instructor can change grades for one or more students via the dropdown menus. Please enter a brief note when a grade is changed for record keeping. For example, you might note “calculation error.” There are no administrative approvals. Once all necessary grades have been entered, the instructor will click Submit. For more information, please see pages 21-25 of this guide.

Faculty can use this new process to enact grade changes for Incomplete (“I”) grades as well. Faculty should still complete an Incomplete Grade Report agreement form with their student before administering an I grade, and both the student and faculty member should retain a copy of the signed agreement.

If faculty need to change a grade from an earlier semester that they can’t access on MyBU, changes can be submitted electronically by emailing the following information to the Academic Administrator: Student Name, Student ID, Semester of the Course, Instructor Name, Course Number (ex. CAS WR 120 A1), Old Grade, New Grade, and Reason for Change. The Academic Administrator will obtain the director’s  approval and submit the form to CAS for processing.

When changing a grade from an Incomplete to a letter grade, the reason listed on the grade change should be something general like “the student completed the missing work by the deadline agreed upon with the instructor.” Please do not include any information about the student’s personal circumstances.

Withdrawals

The deadline for withdrawing from a class with a grade of “W” is posted on the faculty calendar and included in each semester’s syllabus templates. Teachers should announce this deadline to their classes. It is the student’s responsibility to drop a class by the appropriate date if he or she intends to do so. Students who stop attending class yet appear on your roll sheet at the end of the semester should be given a grade and not an “I,” “W,” or “MG.” An MG (missing grade) may be assigned only when a student never appeared in class and completed no work. That grade can be changed by their advising offices later if their situation warrants it.

Grade Disputes

The University’s policy on grade grievances is here.