University of Rhode Island

Academic Standards and Calendar Committee

Report #2004-05-4


March 2005


The Academic Standards and Calendar Committee considered the following matters at their meetings during the spring semester and presents them to the Faculty Senate for confirmation.


1. Student Appeals Process with regard to grades.

The Academic Standards and Calendar Committee recommends the addition of new section 8.26.13 of the UNIVERSITY MANUAL and renumbering of existing section 8.26.13 as 8.26.14:
8.26.13 Undergraduate and graduate students who feel they have received an unfair grade in a course should discuss the matter initially with the instructor.  If the issue remains unresolved, students should approach first the instructor’s department chairperson and secondly, if necessary, the instructor’s dean for mediation on the case.  If the issue still remains unresolved and the dean believes the complaint has merit, the dean may refer the appeal to the college’s academic appeals committee.  The decision of the appeals committee will be final in the case.  The instructor’s dean shall notify the student, the instructor, the student’s dean, and the Office of Student Affairs of the decision, and oversee the implementation of any necessary action.  (Regarding cases involving cheating and plagiarism, see sections 8.27.10 – 8.27.21.)
Rationale: This new UM section clarifies the procedures for appealing grades considered to be unfair.  It deliberately provides for discussion and mediation at several levels (instructor, chairperson, dean)—a provision that experience indicates will lead to the settling of most appeals.  In the event that a case reaches the college’s academic appeals committee, that body is given the authority to make the final decision in the matter.

2. Contact Hours for short sessions

The Academic Standards and Calendar Committee recommends the following amendment to section 8.32.12 of the UNIVERSITY MANUAL (Deleted material shown with strikethrough; new material underlined.):

8.32.12 Lecture courses taught during short sessions (i.e., sessions shorter than half a semester) must include at least between 650 and 700 minutes of classroom instruction time (exclusive of “breaks”) for each academic credit which is offered. (A one-credit course taught during a fourteen-week semester would meet once a week for fifty minutes, i.e. for a total of in thirteen 50-minute sessions would equal 650 minutes; a course with fourteen sessions would equal 700 minutes.) Within these limits, the exact length of a short course is at the instructor’s discretion.  Appropriate justification for different contact times must be provided for courses using different non-lecture formats.
Rationale: The recently approved academic calendar for 2005-2011 establishes thirteen 50-minute class sessions as equaling one academic credit.  This modification to UM section 8.32.12 simply applies that rule to courses taught during short sessions, but leaves in place the existing language allowing instructors to extend a short course to 700 minutes per credit.

3.  Changes in Records

The Academic Standards and Calendar Committee recommends the following amendment to section 8.32.12 of the UNIVERSITY MANUAL (Deleted material shown with strikethrough; new material underlined.):

8.56.10  Changes in Records.  No grade shall be changed after it has been reported to and recorded by the Office of Enrollment Services except upon written request by the instructor to the dean of the instructor’s college and approval by the dean.  Entries to a student’s academic record shall not be changed after two years for the undergraduate student and after three years for the graduate student.  In extraordinary circumstances, appropriate academic deans shall be authorized to allow exceptions for extraordinary reasons to these provisions, including both initiating and approving a grade change in the event that the original instructor is no longer available.  (See also 8.26.10.)
 
Rationale: This modification the UM 8.56.10 recognizes the traditional principle that the authority to change a student’s grade lies primarily with the instructor, but that such authority can be exercised by appropriate academic deans in the event that the original instructor is no longer available.

4.  Make-Up date for Final Exams in the Fall Semester
 
The Academic Standards and Calendar Committee recommends the following amendment to section 8.70.23 of the UNIVERSITY MANUAL by the addition of a sentence regarding a make-up date for finals in the fall semester (New material underlined.):

8.70.23  A minimum of seven days shall be scheduled for final examinations.  Saturdays and Sundays may be used as final examination days under extraordinary circumstances.  A make-up date for a canceled day of final examinations shall be scheduled in the fall semester, when possible.

Rationale: This provision simply mandates the scheduling of a final examination make up day during the semester (fall) when the chances are greatest of a regular examination day being canceled due to inclement weather.