Published: September 14, 2008 12:54 am            

I C A final grade

• OSU: incompletes will revert to letter grades

Oklahoma State University says it is “just trying to be fair” with its new policy on incomplete grades.

The school sent out an e-mail this week announcing students will see what grade they would earn if they did not do the work necessary to finish courses in which they took incompletes.

For example, if a student has earned 70 percent of the possible points for an entire semester, they will see the grade as an “IC” on their unofficial transcript.

The student then has up to a year — or less, at the instructor’s discretion — to complete remaining assignments. If they do so, the grade could improve. If they don’t, it will revert to the grade the student has earned with their work to that point and go on their official transcript that way.

Until the change, a student who failed to finish the work had a permanent “I” on their transcript.

Dr. Celeste Campbell, OSU’s registrar, said the policy is all about clarity.

“It provides more clarification for students because it lets students know up front what their grade would be if they weren’t able to complete anymore of the work in the semester,” she said. “In that sense, I think it’s much more forthright in letting the students know.”

Dr. Gordon Emslie, dean of the graduate college, said the idea for the policy originated with the graduate faculty but they decided it had “broader applicability.”

“We hope that we don’t get too many default grades,” Emslie added. “We hope the students see it as something they are not anxious to earn. We hope they take the initiative to complete the ‘incomplete.’”

He added this policy is a compromise between the old policy of leaving an “I” on the transcript and changing the grade to an “F” after a year as some schools do.

In the spirit of fairness, the default grade shows as an “I” on official transcripts until the student finishes the work or time runs out.

“That is by design,” Campbell said. “We thought that would be unnecessarily punitive.

“Let’s say a student gets sick and they have to send an official transcript for a scholarship or job and it shows an ‘IF.’ That might not be the kind of representation the student would want on the official transcript. It will just show an ‘I’ because the course is incomplete.”

The policy goes into effect for this semester’s grades. It will not affect older grades.

Campbell said the policy is in the catalogue. Also, there is a FAQ page on the school’s Web site at www. okstate.edu/registrar/FAQs/ I%20Grade%20FAQ%20 Students.

        

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