S.03-49
As rierded
OV Serafe-
1
/03
• ?
SIMON FRASER UNIVERSITY
MEMORANDUM
To: ?
Senate
From: ?
A. MacKinnon, Chair
Senate Committee on Undergraduate Studies
Subject: ?
Proposed change of DE from grade to notation
(SCUS Reference 02-9)
Date:
?
March
25,
2003
Action undertaken at the March 18, 2003 meeting of the Senate Committee on Undergraduate
Studies gives rise to the following motion:
MOTION
"That Senate approve the change of the DE grade to a notation as set forth in
S.03-
49
effective 2003-3."
Current Text
DE Grades
The grade DE will be given when a physician's certificate or other document substantiating a request for
deferment on medical or compassionate grounds is received by the registrar or the chair of the department
concerned within four days of the date from which the final examination was to have been written, or
when the course instructor wishes to defer submitting a final mark pending completion of further work by
the student. To be awarded, the DE grade must be submitted by the instructor and approved by the chair.
All unchanged deferred grades will be converted automatically to F after the fifth day of classes of the
semester immediately following the one in which the grade was awarded. In exceptional cases, an
extension may be granted by the department chair upon petition by the student.
Proposed Text
DE Notation
The DE
notation
will be given when a physician's certificate or other document substantiating a request
for deferment on medical or compassionate grounds is received by the registrar or the chair of the
department concerned within four days of the date from which the final examination was to have been
written, or when the course instructor wishes to defer submitting a final mark pending completion of
further work by the student. The DE
notation
must be submitted by the instructor
with a recommended
length of deferral
and approved by the chair. All unchanged
DE notations
will be converted
automatically to F after the
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In exceptional cases, an extension
may be granted by the department chair upon petition by the
student.`
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Rationale ?
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SCUS is recommending to Senate that the deferred grade, DE, be changed from a grade to a
notation. There are a number of implications of this change.
As described in the 02/03 Calendar
(p.
44), the course grade of DE can be granted in two
situations.
• When a student is unable to sit a final exam and requests deferment on medical or
compassionate grounds.
• When the instructor wishes to defer submitting a final mark pending completion of further
work by the student.
The DE grade, which must be submitted by the instructor and approved by the chair, is factored
into GPA calculations as a failing grade unless and until it is changed to a letter grade through
submission of an approved change of grade form. If no such submission is received by the end
of the fifth day of the following semester, the DE grade is replaced by a grade of F on the
student's transcript.
The negative impact of a DE grade on the GPA is problematical, since it can unfairly penalize
students who are applying for scholarships or graduate school or even for graduation. The
solution that has been recommended to SCUS is to make DE a notation rather than a grade. A
notation maintains descriptive utility but has no effect on GPA calculations.
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0
Concerns have been expressed that removing the disincentive from the DE (that it affects the
GPA) might make it much more attractive to students who wanted to spread their academic work
beyond the normal semester limits.
SCUS members believe the best way to address the concerns is by education and monitoring.
The Registrar will remind instructors and Chairs of the proper procedures for processing DE
requests, and the Registrar's Office will monitor the frequency with which DE grades are
granted. The Registrar will then follow-up on any significant increases. The reminder will be
circulated with the announcement of the change, should Senate approve it. In addition the
reminder will include the following information:
• The instructor is responsible for establishing the recommended length of deferral, and must
report that date to the Chair when submitting the DE recommendation.
• The recommended length of deferral should be determined by the nature and extent of the
extenuating circumstance that warrants the DE request.
• The deadline by which the student must complete the exam and/or other course assignment
• When the deferment is of a final exam, instructors will include with their DE
recommendation the documentary support submitted by the student. -
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&
From:
Date:
To:
Title:
SIMON FRASER UNIVERSITY, Admissions
OFFICE OF THE DEAN OF STUDENT SERVICES AND REGISTRAR
Nick Heath
2002 02 14
scus
DE grades in research courses
This topic arose because of difficult situations faced by two good students in different programs in January
2002. The situation is familiar to those who work in financial assistance, scholarship administration and other
related areas.
In one 9 credit u/g thesis course in Fall 2001, the grade distribution at the end of Week 3 of the following
semester was:
P ?
2students ?
20%
DE
?
8 students ?
80%
Each of the 10 is an Honors student in her/his penultimate or final semester.
Completion of the research course and passing it has no effect on the cgpa - the grading scheme is P1W.
However, failure to complete it has a severe penalty, equivalent to 9 scm hrs of F grades.
Some of these students were also taking substantial course loads during the same semester. Seven were taking
11 or more scm hrs credit in addition to the thesis course and one was taking an additional 17 scm hrs of credit
for a total course load of 26 credits!
I sent the following message to dept chairs via e-mail on 2002 01
25.
"DE grades may be given when a student requests extra time to complete work They count as 0.00 in the gpa,
the same as F.
All too often, u/g students do not complete within the semester a research project or honors thesis, such as
ENSC 499-9. As a result, the student's cgpa is adversely affected at a time when many are attempting to gain
admission to graduate programs. Finishing the project in the subsequent semester might appear to be
reasonable, but it can mean loss of student status, because there might be no course registration for that
semester. This affects eligi bility for financial assistance. Loss of scholarships and other financial implications
can also ensue.
Is this aproblem in your department and ?f
so, what do you think can be can about it?"
Replies received:
Not a problem in that department:
?
Ellen Gee ?
(SA)
• ?
Alistair Lachlan ?
(MATH)
Rob Gordon ?
(CRIM)
Other comments:
Norbert Haunerland BISC
"It is indeed a problem, not only for research projects, but also for students who could not complete a course
in a timely manner (e.g., sickness, etc).
Why wouldn't it be possible to exclude DEfrom the calculation? We would still have to justify extended
deferrals, so I don't think it would lead to aflood of no ending DEs."
John D'Auria (Chair SPCSAB)
"Clearly there could be a problem with respect to scholarships as you have pointed out. The solution is not
obvious. One could design certain courses such that a DEfrom such a course would not count on the gpa.
When the DE changes to a letter grade, then the gpa would be upgraded. This is tricky solution, however. It is
hard to see any other solutions since the course in question has not been completed and a grade should not be
given. Of course one could have a temporary grade assigned, pending the final work in the course. This also
is tricky..."
Martin Gotfrit, SCA
"We had a recent situation here where a student was required to withdraw and lost his student loan because
(through no fault of his own) he got a deferral and because he was on academic probation, the DE dropped
him too low. Now ifhe had realized this we could have done something else but as it is such a standard
practice to do DEs, no one thought of it until too late.
My advice is simple. When a student receives a DE, have the software take that course out of the averaging
calculation. Thus no penalty to the student - and - should be dirt simple to do. If they fail to rectify this DE in
the next semester the "F" will be averaged in or the extended deferral will maintain the balance. I suppose
there may be downsides to this but I can't think of one now."
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John Jones (ENSC)
"As your choice of example indicates, this can be a problem in my department.
From my point of view, a simple and painless solution would be to modify the way a DE grade affects the
GPA. At present if I get a DE on a 4-credit course, my GPA is reduced by the following formula:
New_GPA = ('Old GPA * Old Credit Sum)/'Old Credit Sum +4)
It doesn't seem like it would be an insuperably difficult task to amend the formula to:
New_GPA = Old GPA
That is, a DE grade should not affect CGPA at all."
Jon Driver (Dean of Grad Studies)
"Deferred grades would normally be understood to mean that a student was not capable of meeting deadlines.
Consequently, these would have a negative effect on the perception of a student applying for grad school. In
some cases this might be justified - certainly my personal experience has been that students who can't manage
their time tend to have problems in graduate school. I would suggest that we keep the current system, and that
students who have legitimate reasons for DE grades arrange for a letter to be sent explaining the situation."
Summary
Minor issue
This is not a big issue - most departments did not respond.
Make DE gpa - neutral
A few departments feel that DE grades should be excluded from the cgpa. (This could be easily achieved by a
table change). This would make DE equivalent to GN. The danger in this is that this might encourage
students to seek DE grades to avoid or delay unpleasant outcomes, such as RTW.
S
Possible confusion with graduate studies policies
As the Dean of Grad Studies observes, it is likely that a student who is applying to graduate school will be
adversely affected by a DE grade. This can be contrasted with graduate students, who usually have generous
time allowances for the completion of research and who suffer no academic penalties in the interim, because
IP is excluded from the cgpa. It is not clear if all faculty who supervise u/g research are aware of the
significance of the impact of these grading policy differences for u/gs vs. grads.
Advising issues
Some departments appear to cram the ulg research thesis into a semester that is already full.
Recommendations:
1)
Departments be urged to ensure that course loads are reasonable and research can be completed and
written up within the semester - otherwise splitting components of research courses between
semesters is indicated.
2)
Departments be authorized to use (at their discretion) GN grades for incomplete research or thesis
work, especially if the course is graded P1W.
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