Grade Reports

• Early Warning Notices
  In the first week of October and March, faculty submit early warning notices to the Academic Affairs Office. Students who are doing less than “C” work are identified and specific information regarding their lack of progress is noted. Students’ advisors (for academic counseling) and the Registrar’s Office (as a record of poor scholarship) receive copies of the grade reports.
• Semester Grade Reports
  At the end of each semester, grade reports are sent to students by the Registrar’s Office. Students with outstanding financial obligations do not receive their grades until their accounts are cleared. It is the student’s responsibility for identifying errors on the grade report. Any correction must be made by the instructor and filed in the Registrar’s Office. After the grade reports are mailed the deadline for corrections is within 21 calendar days. Please refer to the Student Handbook for the grade appeal process.

Grades and Grade Point Average (GPA)

At the completion of a course, each student is assigned one of the following letter symbols:

Incomplete Grade
A student who has received an incomplete in the traditional scheduling format must finish the incomplete work within four weeks following the final examination period of the semester, or the grade will be recorded as an “F.” Students in the modular scheduling format must finish the incomplete work within the first three weeks after the module ends, or the grade will be recorded as an “F.” In each instance, the instructor may file a request for an extension with the Registrar.

Grade Point Average
Letter grades are converted into a point system for calculating grade point averages:

The grade point average is obtained by dividing the total number of quality points achieved by the total number of credit hours attempted.

Repeat/Delete Option
The repeat/delete option may be used when students have a grade of less than “C” or have failed to meet the minimum grade required by a specific program. All students must complete COM 101 (Composition and Research) with a grade of “C” or higher. When a course is repeated for credit, the earlier grade remains on the student’s permanent record and will appear on all transcripts. The higher grade will be used in computing the cumulative GPA. A student must apply for this option on a repeat/delete form obtained in the Registrar’s Office. This must be filed in the Registrar’s Office during the add/drop period at the beginning of the semester in which the student is repeating the course. The repeat/delete option may only be used in cases where both the original and repeated courses were earned in class at Alvernia; neither may be by correspondence or by study at another institution. Students may be required to use the repeat/delete option to fulfill the specific requirements found in the course descriptions for some majors.

Internal Transfer Option
A student transferring to a new major, before earning 60 credits, has the option of requesting that the Department Chair delete up to 15 credits from those earned in the old major. These credits may not include requirements from the liberal arts core, the new major or graduation requirements. The Department Chair will submit his/her request for deletions to the Academic Standards Committee using the internal transfer form. The student must pick up the form from the Registrar’s Office to initiate the procedure. If the student returns to the previous major, the Registrar will reinstate the deleted courses and all grades will be computed in the GPA. No course with a grade higher than “D” (1.0) may be deleted. The internal transfer option may be exercised only one time during the student’s enrollment at Alvernia. The student’s transcript will reflect all courses taken, even if not computed in the GPA.

Academic Grievance Policy
The Student Grievance Committee attends to grievances of an academic nature. The committee is composed of faculty members and two students. Students are selected by the Student Government Association. The chair is elected by the committee members. The committee will be involved in a student grievance only if the proper procedures have been followed by the student. Those procedures can be found in the Student Handbook. The student must discuss the situation/grade with the Instructor within 20 calendar days of occurrence/disagreement.

Updated: March 29, 2005

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