The seriousness of assigning student's grades
Assigning final grades in a course deserves great care. The grades you give students are a part of their permanent records and may have far-reaching effects on their futures. So leave yourself time to think through this job.

Return of exams
Students can get their exams returned by mail. Please announce to your class that students requesting their final exams must provide the instructor with a stamped, self-addressed envelope of suitable size.

In general, papers and examinations should be returned to students so that they may study from them. Examinations that are not picked up or mailed should be retained and not be destroyed for at least one year to provide for those who wait to pick up their exams until later, and also to protect you in cases where charges of improper grading are filed.

Receipt of grades by students
Please announce to your class that mathematics grades will not be given out through the departmental offices. As soon as grades are posted by the Registrar's Office, they can be viewed via Wolverine Access. However, students who wish to know their grade by postcard should provide you with a stamped postcard. Federal privacy regulations prohibit posting grades in hallways, even if the students are identified only by ID numbers rather than names.

Non-Standard grades
The grades of I (incomplete), X (excused absence form both the final exam and the alternate), and NR (no report) should be given very rarely. These grades always remain on a student's transcript to indicate an irregularity. Unless you report a different grade within the appropriate deadline, these grades these grades will lapse to an E.

You cannot give the grade of I to any student who has completed all the work, nor can you allow a student to do extra work to raise the grade. An incomplete should be used only in the case of a student who is passing the course, but is missing one portion of their grade (often a term paper or exam) and has arranged with their instructor to make it up. Please contact the course coordinator before giving a grade of I.

Students who miss the final exam and the alternate should get a grade X only if they have contacted you and presented an excuse satisfactory to you that their absence was unavoidable. All X's should be given in consultation with the coordinator.

NR (which means no report) should be used only when a student who has never attended your class (or attended only at the very beginning of the term) appears on your grade sheet. A student who has taken exams and has only recently "dropped out of sight" should be given a grade in consultation with the course coordinator.

Grade complaints
You can prevent many complaints by agreeing to meet with students and explaining their performances on the final exam. There are times when students will insist that they know the material, but for various reasons their records don't show it. They need to see that the grades you give are a record of their actual performance, not your opinion of their potential.

There is, however, an increasing tendency for students to make official complaints about their grades. If informal efforts do not resolve the problem, we have to set an elaborate and time-consuming appeals procedure. And beyond that, it is not unheard of for students to sue the University for alleged unfair grading. Your best form of preventive medicine is a good set of records. If you can show that grades were arrived at by a rational system, uniformly applied, most complaints will disappear.

Returning your textbooks
Return your textbooks to 2084 EH. If you are teaching, advising, or tutoring, or for some other reason want to keep your book for the summer, you still need to sign it out with Linda.

Changing course grades
It is unlikely that you will ever have the occasion to change a grade. If you should need to submit a different grade to remedy a clerical error or to replace a grade of I or X, you fill out a Supplementary Grade Report (available in 2084 EH). You will need to know both the student's ID number and college affiliation, e.g. LSA, Engineering, etc.

Leaving Town
If you are going to be unavailable after the term, graduate students should leave their gradebooks and exams in the Graduate Office, and let them know an address where you can be contacted. Faculty should leave their gradebooks and exams with the Associate Chairman, and a forwarding address in 2072 EH.