Exam Excuses and Incompletes
The Dean of the College Office is solely responsible for determining whether a student's absence from a final examination is excused. Faculty wishing to grant a student an exam excuse may contact Dean Stephen Lassonde or Dean David Targan, the deans authorized to grant exam excuses. Please note that students' travel plans are never an excuse for missing a final exam. In emergency situations, students who are unable to contact their professors must contact Dean Lassonde or Dean Targan, who will determine whether or not an exam excuse is warranted. Course instructors are notified of exam excuses granted by the Dean of the College Office.
End-of-semester transcripts for students who have received an exam excuse bear the notation "ABS" next to the course for which the excuse has been approved. Make-up exams are given during Orientation for spring semester courses and during the first week of classes in the spring semester for fall semester courses. Around mid-semester, the Registrar's Office changes any ABS grades that are still not in to No Credit.
Incompletes
The last day to drop a course or file for an Incomplete is the last day of regularly scheduled classes in a given semester. The authority to grant an Incomplete rests with the course instructor, who may simply enter a notation of Incomplete when submitting a student's final grade. In most cases, course instructors are strongly encouraged to require students receiving incompletes to obtain a Request for Grade of Incomplete form (available in the Registrar's Office). By filling out this form, the instructor and student agree together on when the work will be completed.
An Incomplete grade from Semester I that is made up before mid-semester in the spring will improve the student's academic standing (e.g. from Warning to Good Standing), as will an Incomplete from Semester II completed by the first day of classes for the next fall semester. Incompletes made up after these dates count as completed courses, but they do not count toward a student's academic standing.
In those cases where a student on Warning hands in work due on an Incomplete before mid-semester (for Semester I classes), or the first day of classes (for Semester II classes), but the faculty member does not submit a grade until after the set deadline, the academic standing may be changed by the Chair of the Committee on Academic Standing provided that the faculty member testifies that the work was completed and received by the deadline. Permission for credit to be awarded for Incompletes finished after the one-year deadline must be approved by the Committee on Academic Standing.
Students and faculty members should be aware that one-semester thesis courses taken in the first semester of senior year, if not completed by the end of the semester, result in a transcript grade of "I". Also, transcripts by the Registrar at the end of the seventh semester bear such Incompletes. If this presents a problem with post-graduation plans, students are strongly encouraged to register for a single-semester thesis course in the semester they will complete the thesis work.