Part 5: Instruction Faculty Teaching Load Departments of the Faculty may design their curricula on the basis of a 5-course teaching load for the fall and winter semesters (3–2 or 2–3), and one Short Term unit. Faculty members offer Short Term units two out of every three years. Within this general teaching load, the following additional policies are in effect: Department and program Chairs may elect to receive one course or course equivalent credit (not unit credit) per year for their administrative responsibilities. This credit may be taken only during the semester when the Chair has 3 courses. Members of the Faculty taking a one-half year leave of any kind must teach the heavier semester of the 3–2 or 2–3 year. Part-time Faculty who teach full-time for one semester only (not counting Short Terms) must teach 3 courses during that semester. "Course equivalent" credit may be given for thesis supervision, but not for 360 tutorials. (Unit credit may not be given for s50 supervision.) Any department which proposes to have course credit for thesis supervision as a regular, ongoing pattern must have written approval of the same from the Dean of the Faculty. In exceptional circumstances, and only after written approval by the Dean of the Faculty prior to submission to the Registrar of semester course offerings, a department Chair may use one "course equivalent" credit for a colleague whose normal course enrollments are excessive over a two- or three-year period of time. Teaching credit cannot be carried over to another year. The Faculty Advisory System As a part of regular teaching duties, all Faculty members are serving as academic advisors to students. In addition to serving as major field advisors, Faculty are assigned to first- and second-year students. Every effort is made to distribute the advising function equitably throughout the Faculty, and normally Faculty are assigned a New Student Center only in alternate years. The advisor's principal official task is consultation with the student concerning curricular choices at the time of registration for the following term, discussion of petitions to the Committee on Academic Standing requesting exceptions to Faculty regulations, and advising the student wishing to make changes in registration. When an advising session occurs, it does not necessarily indicate that the advisor agrees with the action a student may take. In the event that the advisor strongly opposes a choice made by the student, a further consultation by the student with the Dean of Students or an Associate Dean of Students should take place, in conjunction with the advisor. The student is encouraged to discuss academic problems and the development of curricular programs with the advisor at any time. Faculty members are expected to post their office hours for their advisees. Academic information on the student is supplied by the Registrar's Office to the advisor periodically and at the advisor's request. Faculty members are reminded that comments made in advisee files are part of the educational record and are open to student review under the terms of the federal Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act (FERPA). All faculty should be familiar with basic FERPA regulations and should contact the Registrar with any questions. FERPA regulations are described in detail in the College catalog. Faculty members are assigned advisory functions by the Dean of Students. 9/2000 Class Procedures New Course Proposals. Faculty members may propose courses to be added to the curriculum by obtaining the department or program Chair's permission on the course proposal form (available in the Office of the Registrar and Student Financial Services); obtaining a course number from the Registrar, who will present the proposal to the Committee on Curriculum and Calendar for approval. Approved courses are reported to the Faculty each semester. New course proposals should be submitted early in the semester preceding the semester in which the course is to be taught. Unless it is absolutely necessary, Faculty members are discouraged from limiting course enrollment. Registration Adjustment Periods. Students may add courses during the first ten class days of the semester. Courses may be dropped until the end of the seventh full week of the semester. Exceptions to this adjustment period may be granted for serious illness or personal emergency by the Dean of Students or the Associate Deans of Students. During the Short Term courses may be added during the first three class days and dropped during the first five days. Exceptions to this adjustment period may be granted only for serious illness or personal emergency by the Dean of Students or the Associate Deans of Students. Petitions for exceptions to registration adjustment deadlines on grounds other than illness or emergency must be addressed to the Committee on Academic Standing; a fee may be applied. Withdrawals from courses and units during the registration adjustment periods are not recorded on the studentsı transcripts, however late withdrawals are recorded. Absences. Faculty are expected to meet all instructional obligations at the time and place scheduled. In case of inability to meet a scheduled class for illness or other reason, the instructor must notify the department or program Chair as soon as possible so that the students may be advised of the cancellation, or so that a substitution can be arranged. In case the department or program Chair cannot be reached, the Office of the Dean of the Faculty should be notified. Scheduling. The scheduling of all courses is done by the Registrar, with the approval of the Committee on Curriculum and Calendar, following receipt of requested hours from the Chairs of the departments and programs. Acting within policies established by the Faculty for class scheduling, the Committee's decision is final. The following policies apply regarding the scheduling of courses: The Committee on Curriculum and Calendar shall continue to approve schedules of courses. In granting such approval, the Committee on Curriculum and Calendar shall consider it necessary to distribute courses as equally as possible throughout the available hours of the day in order to satisfy the following principles: that students have the greatest freedom of choice possible in their selection of courses; that there may be maximum equal access to various teaching facilities, such as seminar rooms, laboratories, language laboratories, rooms with audio-visual facilities, etc.; that conflicts in final examinations may be minimized to the greatest extent possible. Consistent with such principles of distribution, and with the principle of dealing equitably with all departments and programs of the College, departments and programs should be free to schedule courses according to their academic needs and those of individual department members. The equitable assignment of instructors to unpopular class hours is likewise the responsibility of the departments and programs. The Committee will request the Registrar to solicit course information from each department or programs, including course numbers, and the preferred time for each class to be given. Departments should disperse classes throughout the entire range of class hours and, unless specifically granted exceptions by the Committee, should observe guidelines specified by the Committee. Room assignments are made by the Registrar. These assignments must not be changed, even temporarily, without the Registrar's approval. With the obvious exception of field trips, academic classes normally are not to be held out-of-doors. Classes are regularly scheduled from 8:00 a.m. to 4:00 p.m., Monday through Friday. A limited number of discussion sections may be scheduled on Tuesday and Thursday until 5:00 p.m. Tuesday and Thursday classes may be scheduled from 7:30 to 10:30 p.m. Faculty and staff are strongly encouraged to avoid scheduling evening events on Tuesday and Thursday. All-campus time is from 12:05 to 1:00 p.m. every Tuesday when classes are in session. No classes should be scheduled at this time. Requests for changes in class meeting times are discouraged after pre-registration and require approval of the Committee on Curriculum and Calendar. For information on the new calendar, please consult with the department/program Chair or the Registrar, or review the new class meeting grid on the World Wide Web site of the Registrar [http://www.bates.edu/admin/offices/reg/pro.htm] The Registrar should be informed of the meeting times for a course listed in the schedules as "to be arranged" (TBA) by the end of the second week of the academic term. No classes may regularly be scheduled on Saturday, but Saturday morning is available, at the instructor's discretion, for occasional scheduling of classes, examinations, and field trips. The department/program Chair should be advised of any use of Saturday mornings for such purposes. Attendance System. Class lists are available from the on-line system or by request from the Registrar. Only after a name has been officially added to class lists should a student be considered properly registered in a course or unit. While students may add a course until ten days into a semester and three days into Short Term, class attendance is expected at the start of the semester. No grades should be submitted for students whose names do not appear on a roster. Students who have neglected to drop a course will receive an "F" grade. Subject to department/program policy, each instructor shall, at the beginning of each semester or Short Term, make clear to the students in the course the expectations regarding attendance and nonattendance at classes and laboratories. It is up to each instructor, according to departmental policy, to excuse or penalize excessive absences in a course. Before excusing an absence, an instructor may require a written confirmation from the Dean of Students or an Associate Dean of Students as to the validity of an excuse. Students who are reported to the Registrar as absent the first class meeting of a semester or Short Term without prior approval of the instructor, or excused by a Dean, are dropped from the course or unit. Field Trips. Whenever class trips entail absences from other classes, the instructor must secure advance approval from his/her department Chair. A list of all students involved, and a list of all courses they will individually miss as a result of the field trips, must accompany the request. Students may not be asked to go on field trips if they involve absences from classes in which examinations are scheduled. Course Assignments. Instructors should make clear to the students at the beginning of each course not only the general intent and scope of the course, but insofar as possible, the structure of the assignments, the number, timing, and weighing of the examinations, and any term paper obligations. A written syllabus for each course is expected. Copies of the syllabus should be sent to the department Chair. Faculty should made every effort to provide an evaluation to a student of his or her work in a course or unit before the last day to drop a course in a semester or Short Term. Optional Reading Period. The last week of classes in each semester may be used as an optional reading period by instructors who deem it academically desirable. The reading period option may only be exercised in courses for which a final examination is to be given during the final examination period. The dates for the reading periods are included each year in the calendar reported to the Faculty by the Committee on Curriculum and Calendar. Short Terms. According to Faculty legislation, students can register for no more than three Short Term units. Only two units are required to fulfill the degree requirement, unless the student graduates under the three-year program, when three units are required. Students wishing to register for their third Short Term unit receive a lower registration priority than those registering for a first or second, with exceptions granted for three-year graduates. This provision for assigning priority does not apply to units requiring written permission of the instructor. 9/2000 Examinations In-Term Examinations. Student learning is more probable in courses where there are multiple forms of evaluation. At least one week's notice should be given to students of an hour written examination, and some advance notice should also be given of any shorter quiz if it has considerable weight in determining the final grade. No examinations or quizzes in classes should be given during the last full week of any semester, including the optional reading period. This provision shall not apply to practical examinations given in laboratory work or to the Short Term. Hour examinations should not be assigned on the first day after a vacation for which all students leave campus. No in-class examinations shall be conducted on either Rosh Hashana or Yom Kippur. The Dean of Students shall be responsible for reminding all Faculty members, prior to the beginning of each fall semester, of this legislation and of the dates on which these holidays fall. In case of examinations missed for illness or other excusable reason, the student is expected to get a written excuse from the Dean of Students or an Associate Dean of Students. Upon presentation of this excuse to the instructor, the instructor will arrange for a make-up at a mutually convenient time. Normally, examinations will not be administered in the Health Center. Final Examinations. The final examination schedule is composed by the Registrar. All students are expected to take the final examinations at the time scheduled. It is not within the discretion of the instructor to waive or alter the examination requirement for individual students, or to reschedule the examination for the entire class. Requests from individual students must be made to the Dean or Associate Deans of Students. Faculty requests to reschedule for the entire class should be made to the Committee on Curriculum and Calendar. Final examinations are regularly scheduled as two-hour written exercises. Variant forms of examination or waiver of the examination in course may be determined by the instructor, in consultation with the department Chair. The Chair must inform the Registrar, at the time registration information is submitted, whether or not there are any variant forms of final examination (e.g., oral or take-home) or any waivers of final examinations in the departmentıs course offerings. This information is to be included in the registration material going to the students. After registration, any change must be presented by the department to the Committee on Curriculum and Calendar for approval. Such request for a change must be submitted to the Committee not later than the end of the registration adjustment period for the courses. All student absences from scheduled final examinations are to be reported promptly to the Registrar and to the Dean of Students, who may arrange with the instructor for a make-up examination, unless the examination is specifically waived by the Committee on Academic Standing. Unless the examination is made up or waived as stated, absence from the final examination is to be counted as failure in the course. Final examinations will not be administered in the Health Center. Graded final examinations are normally not returned to the students, but should be retained by the Faculty member for at least several weeks into the following term, so that a student may discuss the examination paper with the instructor. 9/2000 The Grading System Grades Used. Grades in completed courses are assigned according to the following schedule of letters and quality point equivalents: A+=4.0 B+=3.3 C+=2.3 D+=1.3 F = 0 W=0 A =4.0 B =3.0 C =2.0 D =1.0 DEF= 0 P=0 A-=3.7 B-=2.7 C-=1.7 D-=0.7 ON = 0 A grade of "ON" is used to indicate that a student's academic work is ongoing into the next semester and that a final grade will be determined at the end of that semester (as in senior thesis courses). Students are expected to complete all work for a course by its terminal date. An incomplete grade will not be accepted by the Registrar, unless the Academic Standing Committee, the Dean of Students, or an Associate Dean of Students has approved an extension of time to complete the work, on academic grounds or because of a disabling illness or special emergency. A grade of "DEF" indicates that the student has secured, through the Dean of Students, a formal deferral for incomplete course work. Incomplete work for which deferred grades are given must be completed in a specific period of time as determined on the deferral form, or the "DEF" grade becomes an "F." Departments and programs requiring the successful completion of a thesis as one possible condition for graduation may authorize their members to defer the submission of the grade for a thesis that would otherwise receive an "F." The length of any such deferral shall not exceed five calendar weeks from the posted date for the submission of such grades, and the deferred grade shall not be higher than a "D–." A grade of "W" is used to indicate that a student was required to withdraw from a course due to extenuating circumstances, or after the legislated drop date. Pass/Fail Grading. Students may elect to take a total of two Bates courses (but not Short Term units) on a pass/fail basis, with a maximum of one per semester. The following conditions apply: Students may declare or change a pass/fail option until the final day to add a course. Students taking a course pass/fail are not identified as such on class rosters. Faculty members submit regular letter grades (A, B, C, D, F) to the registrar, who converts the letter grade to a pass or a fail. Unless the student chooses to inform the instructor, only the student, the student's advisor, and the registrar know the grading mode for the course. A grade of D- or above is considered a passing grade. Departments and programs decide whether courses taken pass/fail can be used to satisfy major and secondary concentration requirements. This information is available in the introductory paragraphs for each department's and program's courses and units of instruction in the Catalog. Courses taken pass/fail are not computed in the student's grade point average, and do not count toward General Education requirements. A pass is equivalent to two quality points. Optional Short Term Unit Grades. An instructor must indicate "letter grade" or "satisfactory/unsatisfactory" grade for a Short Term unit when submitting registration materials. This applies to all students registered for the unit. Deficiency Reports. All Faculty are requested by the Office of the Dean of Students at least once a semester to report any student whose academic work to date falls below C–. In addition, however, Faculty are encouraged to report a deficient student at any time. Warning reports are given to the student, who is advised to review the situation immediately with the advisor, instructor, and a Dean. Faculty Grades Due. Grades in a course are due in the Office of the Registrar and Student Financial Services no later than 4 p.m. four calendar days from the time of the final examination, or four calendar days after classes end for courses with no final examination scheduled. In some cases, especially for seniors in their final semester, honors candidates, and students on academic probation, the Registrar may demand the grades earlier. At the same time, if a Faculty member has two or three large section examinations on the same day or some other special circumstance which makes it impossible to comply with the above timetable, the Registrar should be notified in advance of the final examination. It is imperative that final grades be submitted on time. Until all grades are submitted, students cannot be informed of any academic deficiencies, and students may lose employment or educational opportunities that require current transcripts. Failure to submit grades to the Registrar by the deadline is a failure to meet the responsibilities called for by contract. Reporting Grades to Students. Semester grades are officially reported to students only through the No Line On-Line Student Records Service, which students access through the World Wide Web. Faculty members may unofficially report semester grades to students, but not before the end of the final examination period. In compliance with federal law, student names and grades cannot be posted on office or classroom doors, bulletin boards, or other public places. Changing a Final Grade. Course grades, after they have been submitted to the Registrar, may be changed only on professorial petition stating specific grounds of clerical or computational error. All other requests for a change of grade shall be directed to the Committee on Academic Standing. 9/2000 The Junior Year and Junior Semester Abroad Programs The purposes of studying abroad, the eligibility requirements, and the Off-Campus Study Registration and selection process are stated in the College Catalog. Basic requirements for selection have been established by Faculty vote. The Committee on Off-Campus Study, a standing committee of the Faculty, approves all participants and regularly reviews the program. Junior Year Abroad (JYA) and Junior Semester Abroad (JSA) programs are administered by the Office of the Dean of Students. Academic Credit for Junior Year Programs. Work done under JYA or JSA status is awarded course credits by Bates College through action by the Committee on Off-Campus Study. If the student satisfactorily completes a full academic year as a full-time student (JYA), he or she may choose to receive either 8 course credits or 7 course credits and 1 Short Term unit credit. Students who complete the equivalent of a Bates semester off campus (JSA) may receive 4 course credits. Official transcripts or reports from the foreign university designate this completion. Grades earned in JYA or JSA programs are not recorded on the Bates transcript, nor are they computed in the GPA. The major department Chair, in consultation with the returned student, determines what courses taken abroad may be applied to the department's major program, possibly exempting the student from certain requirements. It is thus very important that the student, before going abroad, consult with the department Chair and establish what must be done during JYA or JSA in order to satisfy all major requirements for graduation. 9/2000 The Academic Calendar The Faculty uses a formula for establishing the academic year calendars. This formula, cited below, guides the Committee on Curriculum and Calendar in designating annual calendars five years in advance. Fall and winter semesters of 12 full weeks of classes. A fall semester beginning on a Wednesday. A fall recess following 6 weeks of classes, beginning after the last class on a Tuesday and ending at 8:00 a.m. on the following Monday, and a one-week Thanksgiving recess beginning at 4:00 p.m. on the Friday preceding Thanksgiving and ending at 8:00 a.m. on the Monday following Thanksgiving. A winter semester beginning on the Monday following a 3-week break between semesters. A winter recess of 1 week timed to coincide with the local school holiday. A 1-week recess between winter semester and Short Term. Short Term of 5 full weeks. For those particular years in which the Faculty's academic calendar policies result in conflicts between major academic occasions (specifically, the opening of the academic year and the scheduling of final examinations) and the major Christian or Jewish holidays (specifically, Christmas, Good Friday, Easter, Rosh Hashana, Yom Kippur, and the first two days of Passover), the Committee on Curriculum and Calendar shall designate calendars which avoid such conflicts. According to Faculty vote, all classes on Martin Luther King Jr. Day are cancelled. 9/2000