Faculty Extends Tentative Grade Makeup Period

On March 27, 2001, the faculty of Yeshiva College passed five landmark resolutions, once again affirming its role as a group dedicated to both enhancement of the quality of education at Yeshiva and sensitive consideration of the day-to-day needs of the students.

While all five resolutions promise salutary advantages for students, the measure most beneficial to students, perhaps, is the faculty's decision to officially extend the deadline before tentative grades are finalized from six weeks to a semester plus a summer.

Until last week, faculty had been permitted to submit finalized grades for up to six weeks following the conclusion of a semester. As Dr. Moshe J. Bernstein, Chairman of the Academic Standards Committee, recalled, however, this deadline had hardly been respected; teachers would often accept outstanding papers well beyond the six-week period.

In an effort to create a binding tentative grade deadline, the faculty passed a resolution granting students a maximum of a semester and a subsequent summer to finish their coursework for any class. Henceforth, instructors will be required to submit finalized grades to the registrar no later than the first two weeks of the second semester after the term in which the work was originally assigned (i.e. final grades for a Spring 2001 course would be due during the first two weeks of the Spring 2002 semester). The faculty hopes that the extra semester and summer will encourage students to complete their work - and to do it well. "Many of Yeshiva College's classes demand lots of written work," acknowledged Bernstein. "We want students to take these good courses, but they'll fall into a trap of their own making if we don't give them a little bit of room." Elaborating, Bernstein explained that the new deadline was designed to prevent student haste in completing assignments. Additionally, the faculty hopes that the deadline will instill students with a heightened sense of responsibility because - extreme emergencies notwithstanding - no exceptions will be permitted.

In terms of logistics, a student requesting an extension will be required to complete a written form and have it signed by the course instructor. Because helping the student is a foremost goal of this resolution, a great deal of leeway will be afforded students, provided that they guarantee that the extended time will elevate the quality of their work. Bernstein concluded, however, that should students take undue advantage of this extension opportunity, the faculty will not think twice about revoking the resolution. The faculty also reasserted Yeshiva College's tradition of accepting default grades. Teachers will continue to award students who have not completed all their required coursework for a given class by the end of the semester an "Incomplete," coupled with the default grade, the grade they would receive should they forego completion of their missing assignments. If the student does not complete the assignment before the end of the new tentative grades deadline, the default grade - not an F - will become his final grade for the term.

Bernstein specified that, initially, this resolution met with opposition. Certain faculty members believed that the newly proposed default grade system would not sufficiently induce students to make up their missed work. Eventually, however, the system was narrowly upheld. The majority opinion essentially maintained that neglecting to complete an assignment is comparable to leaving out, for instance, a large portion of a final exam, in which case the student would not receive an F unless he did not complete the amount of material required to pass the exam.

Continuing its trend of affirming YC's current educational policies, the faculty voted to preserve the requirement that transfer grades must be C or better in order to be accepted for credit. Along similar lines, the faculty established a provision whereby a grade of C- will now count for one's major, provided that his cumulative GPA from his major will be at least 2.0 by the end of his senior year.

The final resolution dealt mostly with student involvement in summer internships. In an effort to grant students what Bernstein termed "greater responsibility in non-classroom-based, credit-bearing work," the faculty decided to give students involved in internship programs - such as the summer programs of Wall Street firms or AIPAC, the American Israel Lobby - one academic credit, which will not count toward their major. This provision will ostensibly satisfy the requirement of many firms or groups that mandates undergraduate interns to receive actual credit for their work. In order to gain this one credit, the student will reportedly have to write an essay about how his summer experience proved educational for him.