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Dear Colleagues,
With the semester ending, we want to remind faculty and students of some policies related to exams and end-of-semester assignments. According to the Rules and Procedures of the Faculty (see below) quizzes and examinations may not be given during the last five full class days or during the review-consultation-study (RCS) period. Also, faculty members are to make themselves available to their students at announced times during the RCS period. This year, the academic calendar shows that the RCS period is Saturday December 9th and Monday December 11th. Faculty should communicate to students in their class what times during the RCS period they are available.
Questions or concerns about implementation of this policy should be addressed to the provost’s office.
Sincerely,
Nathan Urban
Terry-Ann Jones
Sabrina Jedlicka
R&P states:
3.1.1 University Calendar
Each semester will have fourteen weeks of instruction, a review-consultation-study (RCS) period of two days, and a nine-day period for final examinations. The RCS period is intended to provide a few days for informal academic work between the end of the formal instruction period and the beginning of final examinations. It is expected that students will use this period to consolidate their command of the material of their courses.
Faculty members will make themselves available to their students at announced times during the RCS period. No quizzes or examinations may be given during the "review" period.
3.7.3.1 Final examinations
If an instructor chooses to require a proctored final exam, a take-home exam, or a final project in a given course, the end of semester exam period shall be used as follows:
1. Proctored exam- scheduled on-campus for a 3 hour block assigned by the Registrar.
2. Take home exam- no take home exams can be due until at least 72 hours after the beginning of the exam period and must be due by the last day of the final exam period.
3. Final project (e.g. presentation or final paper)- Final projects must be due no later than the last day of the end of the final exam period.
Faculty should be available during the final exam period until all semester grades for his or her courses have been submitted to the Registrar. No final examinations shall be given or scheduled in one- or two-credit laboratory courses during the final examination period. No final exams in other full-semester classes shall be given prior to the start of the final period.
Formal withdrawal from any course before the end of the semester automatically cancels the student's rights to an examination in that course.
Final examinations are scheduled for three-hour periods by the registrar. For a course not requiring a proctored final exam the instructor shall notify the Registrar that no exam time need be scheduled. Conflict examinations are provided wherever a student cannot take a regular examination because of a conflict in examinations on the published examination schedule. In all cases of conflict, the course having the smallest number of rostered sections takes precedence, except that in cases of conflicts in courses having the same number of sections, the course having the fewest students shall take precedence. Conflicts in the regular examination schedule must be reported by the students to the registrar not later than the third day following the publication of the examination schedule.
Issues related to exam scheduling have been discussed by the Educational Policy Committee and by the full faculty at several points in the last two years, including reminders about the need to comply with R&P.
Practices that violate the policy of not scheduling exams during the final week of classes include:
1. Explicitly scheduling a final exam during this period,
2. scheduling a final exam during this period after having obtained the unanimous consent of all the students in a course,
3. providing students the option of taking a final exam during the final week of classes as an alternative to taking the exam during the registrar scheduled time period,
4. having a take home exam due during the final week of classes.
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