Photo Courtesy of Hamilton College
On Monday, Nov. 26, at the weekly Student Assembly meeting, Associate Professor of Psychology and Associate Dean of Students Tara McKee announced three new proposed changes to the college catalog.
The changes were prompted after McKee received several emails from students asking if they were permitted to retake courses they had previously taken in order to receive a higher grade. McKee looked in the college catalog to see if this was permitted and realized that the language was not clear on the matter.
“In practice, retaking courses for a better grade has never been allowed,” she said, “but that wasn’t explicitly stated in the language.”
She said the change to the catalog made the language clearer and affirmed that students cannot retake classes for a better grade except for certain classes that are specifically outlined in the catalog. Prompted by this initial query, McKee found other instances of vague language and said she realized, “It had been a long time since all of this language was reviewed.” Working alongside the Committee of Academic Standing, McKee said she went through the rest of the catalog to see if the language in it fit the College’s practices and to see if anything needed updating. From this review, two other changes were instituted. The second change proposed was to alter how students receive “incomplete” as a grade in a class. Incompletes allow students four additional weeks after the semester ends to complete a course. These allowances need to be approved by the Chair of the Committee on Academic Standing, the Associate Dean of Students for Student Support, the professor of the course, and the student. After the potential change, any potential extension of coursework must now be granted by the Dean of
Students office. Previously, only a professor could approve an extension. McKee said this change is to assure that the Dean of Students office can be certain that the student has a compelling reason for the extension and so that the office can know when this deadline actually is. In order to receive approval for this extension, students must provide documents that prove a continuation of extenuating circumstances that prevented them from finishing the course in the regular time period. If a student is granted four additional weeks to complete coursework but does not finish within eight weeks from the end the semester, the incomplete status becomes a failing grade. Students, however, can petition for a withdrawal instead of a failing grade after these eight weeks if they have not completed the work. The third and final change addresses participation in the commencement ceremony at the end of the school year. In the past, only students who completed all the graduation requirements could take part in this graduation ceremony. With the change, students who have completed all but one or two of the 32 credits required in order to graduate from Hamilton can still attend commencement.
Such student must have also fulfilled their writing intensive requirement, their qualitative and symbolic reasoning requirement, and their physical education requirement. This scenario mostly applies to students who, in their senior spring, either fail, withdraw, or are marked incomplete for one of their courses. With the proposed change, these students can now still attend the ceremony as long as they have a plan with professors and several academic offices to complete their final required credits in the future.
These three changes are waiting to be approved by the Board of Trustees in March. These policies have already been vetted by President Wippman and many other senior staff members and faculty. Pending this final approval, these changes will be confirmed and the new policies will be enforced.
