MEMORANDUM ON COURSE PROCEDURES

Each year an inordinate number of complaints and disputes about grades, evaluations, and course procedures come to department heads, deans, the Provost's Office, and the Registrar's Office. The great majority of those disputes could be avoided if faculty members took note of the minimal guidelines suggested below.

These guidelines suggest possible ways of minimizing some of the confusions and misunderstandings that lead to grievances. All courses cannot and should not be conducted identically. These guidelines are meant to be helpful. They are suggestions not prescriptions. They are not intended to limit faculty freedom or to determine course structure and modes of evaluation.

GUIDELINES

1. Make available to each student an up-to-date syllabus that will provide students with the following information:

• your course objectives
• your expectations and any special requirements for papers, projects, lab reports or exams
• your attendance policies
  
• your grading and/or evaluation criteria and the approximate weight of each course requirement in the final grade or evaluation
  
• your examination schedule and any make-up or rescheduling policies
  
• your office, phone and mailbox numbers
  
• a brief statement about the university's policy on academic dishonesty, including plagiarism
  
• Academic Support Services

Try to avoid major changes as the semester progresses.

2. Since grading and evaluation policies often tend to be a focus of confusion or misunderstanding, take special care to articulate your criteria and invite students to discuss related questions with you early in the course.

3. Avoid further misunderstandings by reminding students of their responsibilities in your course. For instance, remind them that it is their responsibility to take exams at the scheduled times and know the location of their exams, to make alternative arrangements in advance if they have a legitimate reason for not being able to take an exam, and to provide appropriate explanation and documentation if they miss an exam without making prior arrangements. Remind students also of your policies on make-up exams.

4. Announce field trips and other special meetings, preferably in class and in writing. If these require activity on holidays and/or weekends, state this clearly.

5. If you do not return exams, lab reports, papers, and projects to your students, be sure to retain, for a reasonable period of time, all of your grading and evaluation materials for timely review with students both during the semester and after final grades or reports. Students have the right to discuss their grades and evaluations with faculty; they should be apprised of your grading policies, see their work, and hear your evaluation of their work directly.

6. Please remember to keep written records, especially on matters concerning academic dishonesty, and in cases of the latter, students must be informed in writing within ten days of the discovery of the alleged violation.