Grades and Credit

Course Credits

The academic year’s work ordinarily provides 4 units of credit. A year course usually counts as 1 unit; most semester courses yield 1/2 unit. Note: 1/2 unit of credit is considered to be the equivalent of a four semester-hour course at other colleges and universities. Courses offered at Kenyon are offered only for the credit as stated in the Course of Study and may not be undertaken for greater or lesser credit.

Course Grades

A student may take courses for a letter grade, on a Pass/D/Fail basis, or as an auditor.

Grades. Instructors are required to report grades for students enrolled for credit. A chart at the end of this chapter shows the grades and their value. Grades range from A through F. Plus and minus may be attached to any grade except F.

Students who withdraw from a course while passing will have WP recorded. A student may be expelled from a course. In this event, X is recorded on the permanent record. Students receiving an F, WP, WI, WL, or X receive no credit for the course.

Pass/D/Fail (P/D/F). To encourage students to experiment with disciplines and courses they might not otherwise try, the College provides the opportunity to enroll in courses outside the declared major on a P/D/F basis with the permission of the advisor and the instructor. A maximum of 2 of the 16 units required for graduation may be earned on this basis. Within any given semester a student may take no more than one course on the P/D/F basis, unless the student is taking 2 1/2 or more units of credit, in which case a second course (but no more) may be taken on this basis. Once students have declared a major, they may not take courses on a pass/fail basis in the department of their major or in any course required for the major.

With the P/D/F option, credit is earned with a Pass or D+, D, or D– ; only the D+, D, D–, or F affects the student’s grade point average.

Work completed in a course taken on a pass/fail basis will receive the following grades and credit: All coursework receiving a C- or above will have a P recorded on the permanent record card. The credit thus earned counts toward graduation in every respect and is subject to the same restrictions as credit earned with a letter grade; however, the grade is not calculated in the student’s grade point average. If the work of the course is D+, D, D–, or F, that grade is recorded on the permanent record card. The credit thus earned (for a grade of D+, D, or D–) counts toward graduation in every respect and is subject to the same restrictions as any letter-grade credit, and does affect that student’s grade point average.

The deadline for enrolling in both semester and year courses on a P/D/F basis, or to change to a letter-grade basis, is the end of the fourth week of the course. Students must have the signatures of the instructor and their advisor before they may enroll in a course on a P/D/F basis. Students are specifically required to maintain a consistent grading option over both halves of a year course.

Audit. Any fully enrolled student may, with the prior approval of the instructor, enroll as an auditor in one or more courses in addition to his or her normal load. With the exception of certain production and performance courses, such enrollment must be completed within the first seven days of classes. The student should first obtain from the instructor a clear understanding of the audit requirements for that course. The designation “AU” normally will mean that the student has attended at least the lectures, laboratories, or studio meetings regularly, or accomplished other activities designated by the instructor, at a level equivalent to regular attendance. An instructor has the right to require more than this minimum before granting AU designation.

Although an auditor receives no academic credit for that work, if the instructor certifies that the student has met the audit requirements of the course, the course will be entered on the student’s permanent record with the notation AU in place of a grade. If the instructor does not so certify, no record of the audit enrollment is entered. Courses taken on an audit basis, however, cannot be used to satisfy curricular rules or requirements.

Grade Reports

Grade reports are available to students on the World Wide Web a few days after the conclusion of each semester, as announced. At the end of the first semester, tentative grades in year courses are reported. Tentative grades are not a part of the permanent record. However, students requesting transcripts during the second semester should remember that these tentative grades are official and do appear on the transcript until replaced by final grades. (Students who withdraw from the College in midyear should see also “Procedures for Withdrawing from the College,” especially the section “Grades and Credit.”)

Students without web access at home are urged to visit the registrar’s office in November or December, or May, to address an envelope for grade reporting purposes.

Parents may request copies of grade reports if the student is a dependent for income-tax purposes. In addition, the College may, when so requested, send copies of correspondence regarding the academic standing of such students to parents.

Grade Averages

Semester and cumulative grade point averages are computed by multiplying the quality points of each grade by the number of units of credit, summing, and dividing the total quality points by the total credits attempted, truncating to two decimal places. The chart at the end of this chapter lists each grade and the quality points it carries.

The cumulative grade point average. Only grades earned with Kenyon faculty are included in the Kenyon grade point average (GPA). Grades earned in summer school, at other colleges by transfer students, and so on, do not affect students’ Kenyon GPAs, nor are such grades recorded on the Kenyon permanent record. Grades earned through a Kenyon-approved Off-Campus Study Program are recorded but are not figured into the Kenyon GPA.

Only the fourteen grades A+ through F and X are computed and affect GPAs. WP, WL, and WI, while recorded on the permanent record, do not affect a student’s GPA. “Pass” does not affect the Kenyon GPA though credit is earned.

Tentative grades in year courses have a temporary effect on the Kenyon GPA (until they are replaced by the final grades).

Repeating a Course

A student may repeat a course with the advisor’s and instructor’s approvals. If the student repeats a course that was previously failed, the new grade and credit become part of the permanent record and may apply toward graduation requirements. However, the F is not removed from the student’s record, and both grades are calculated into the cumulative average.

If a student repeats a course for which credit and a passing grade were received previously, the new grade becomes part of the permanent record; however, no credit or quality points are received for the repeated course. Thus the new grade does not affect the student’s cumulative average. The student must notify the Office of the Registrar, and the instructor must confirm, in the case where a student is repeating a course for which credit was previously earned.

Changes in Final Grades

If, after an instructor reports a final grade, an error in calculation or reporting is discovered, the instructor may ask the dean for academic support for permission to change the grade. Such changes must be requested before the end of the fourth week of the following semester. Changes after the fourth week can be made only through petition to the Academic Standards Committee.

A student who believes his or her grade in a course has been unfairly assigned may, if a written appeal to the instructor is ineffective, carry that appeal to the chair of the instructor’s department and, if the problem is not then resolved, to the dean for academic support, who will present it to the Academic Standards Committee. If a majority of the committee is persuaded that an injustice has been done, they will authorize the dean for academic support to direct the instructor to change the grade.

Class Rank and Merit List

Twice a year, class ranks are calculated on the basis of students’ averages for the preceding semester. Students who earned an average of 3.45 or higher are placed on the Merit List. This list is announced each summer (for the preceding spring semester) in Summer Newscope and each spring (for the preceding fall semester) in a regular issue of Newscope, and notification is sent to the students’ hometown newspapers. Class rank is not recorded on a student’s permanent record.

At the end of the senior year, a class rank is calculated based upon the Kenyon cumulative GPA.

Incompletes

An incomplete (“I”) is a postponement of the deadline for completion of a course. The faculty intends that only in cases of extreme hardship shall an incomplete be given, and only before the scheduled ending of a semester. Ordinarily, only the dean of students or the dean for academic advising is empowered to grant incompletes. They may do so in the following instances:

1. When a student has fallen seriously behind in his or her work as a result of prolonged illness or other incapacity, or because of a personal or family crisis that necessitated a substantial interruption of academic work, or

2. When an illness or similar incapacity beyond the student’s control occurs in the final days of a course, making final examinations or similar work impossible to complete in the required time. Except in severe cases when the deans may act on students’ behalf, students must request an incomplete of the deans. In the absence of the deans, the associate provost is empowered to act.

For students who have been granted an incomplete, instructors submit a default grade that would be appropriate if the student does not fulfill the Incomplete Contract. This grade is held by the registrar and awarded only if the agreed-upon work is not completed by the agreed-upon deadline. How this default grade is computed is entirely in the hands of the instructor, but it ordinarily takes into consideration the nature and quality of work completed and the nature of the work outstanding. This default grade is presumably somewhat lower than that which will be awarded once the remaining examination or other work has been submitted.

The student granted an incomplete must complete the work of the course by the date specified by the granting dean. Once the student has completed the work for the course and the instructor submits the grade, the I is changed to the appropriate grade. Only the dean for academic advising may grant extensions. Unless an extension is granted, the instructor is required to submit a final grade 14 days following the deadline specified by the granting dean even if the student has not completed the work; if no grade is submitted, the incomplete is converted to the default grade.