February 2012
TO: Faculty
FROM: Barbara Casey, Interim Registrar
RE: Information
on Selected College Policies and Academic Regulations
SUBMISSION OF COURSE SYLLABI
Once again the College
Libraries are requesting copies of your syllabi in electronic form. Please e-mail your syllabi files as
attachments to the College Archivist, Sylvia Kennick Brown (e-mail: Sylvia.Kennick.Brown@williams.edu).
PACE OF REQUIRED WORK AND EVALUATION
Students are greatly helped
in planning work for all courses if professors clearly set out in advance their
expectations about the nature and timing of required work. Students should receive course syllabi
promptly at the beginning of the course, and any revisions should follow as
soon thereafter as possible. The dates
of in-term exams should be included if possible. In addition, please list any field trips or
other special activities and inform Jon Bakija, Chair of the Calendar &
Schedule Committee, of any such trips.
Students should receive
periodic evaluation of their work during the semester. The evaluation can be in many forms: papers, quizzes, tests, graded laboratory
reports, etc. In courses designed
primarily for first-year students, some substantial part of a course's graded
work should be scheduled and evaluated before warnings are due at mid-semester.
Occasionally, the Office of
Academic Resources will request faculty members to modify course procedures in
order to accommodate students with disabilities. These modifications are in almost all cases
very minor, such as the provision of a note-taker or extended time on an
exam. In the case of extended exam time,
you will be given timely notice so that arrangements can be made. You should feel free to call the Director of
Academic Resources if, for any reason, you feel the need for advice or
information on this subject.
ATTENDANCE
The College administers no
general program to ensure class attendance.
But the Catalog makes clear that "faculty may set standards
of attendance as they feel are necessary for the satisfactory completion of the
course," and that "students must assume the academic risks incurred
by absences." Students have also
been told that instructors may drop from their courses, or refuse to add,
anyone who misses the first class meeting.
Because many of you, in some
way, factor attendance into the calculation of final grades, I strongly
recommend that you explain your attendance policy as clearly and specifically
as you can, both on your syllabus and in class.
Clarity of expectation is very important and helpful to everyone should
problems arise in the course of the term.
You should also ask your students to talk to you about any conflicts as
early as they can, and never less than a week beforehand.
Students who repeatedly miss
class are often experiencing a variety of academic and personal problems. If one of your students is repeatedly missing
classes, please notify the Dean's Office so that we can offer the student help
and advice.
Below is a link to the Chaplains’ Office listing major religious
holidays. Members of the community who
wish to celebrate such holidays would appreciate it if you would avoid
scheduling required classes or exercises on those days. A Massachusetts law, included in the Catalog,
stipulates that students who cannot meet course requirements at the appointed
time because they are observing religious holidays must be provided the
opportunity to make up the work--unless, in the words of the law, it creates
"an unreasonable burden" on the school and the faculty. http://chaplain.williams.edu/religious-holidays/
"BUT MY RIDE IS LEAVING . . ."
Students are expected to
attend classes even on days when there is an unusually strong desire to skip;
e.g., the last day before spring break.
It may be helpful to know
that informational material sent to students this summer included the following
statement: "When planning your
departures from the College at holidays or vacations, please bear in mind that
you will not be excused (by your teachers or deans) from classes or exams to
accommodate early departures."
TUTORING PROGRAM,
THE WRITING WORKSHOP, and
THE
Each year department chairs
provide THE ACADEMIC RESOURCES OFFICE with lists of students (often
majors in the field) who could serve as tutors for students wanting and/or
seeking additional support in that department’s courses. If you think a student could be helped
by a tutor, please refer him or her to the Office of Academic Resources for
information. Tutors are provided to students without charge.
The Writing Workshop is available to all students
and is free of charge. The Workshop operates--in the evenings--in Sawyer
Library and in Schow Science Library. Students may simply drop in for a
session or, when traffic is high, schedule an appointment. Sessions can focus
on nearly finished essays or on essays at any stage of development. Tutors ask
questions and generate dialogue, so they can help their peers with essays at
the very earliest stages of composition and thought. Students who want to
improve their writing should contact the Director of Writing, Stephanie Dunson
(stephanie.dunson@williams.edu), who can assign them regular tutors to work with them continually.
Writing Tutors can also be assigned to one of your courses as "Writing
Assistants." Stephanie Dunson would be happy to tell you more about
this part of the program.
The Math Science Resource Center (MSRC) is devoted to helping
Williams students taking the following courses: in Mathematics (MATH 100,
MATH 101, MATH 102, MATH 103, MATH 104, MATH 105, MATH 106), Biology (BIOL 101,
BIOL 102, and BIOL 202), Chemistry (CHEM 151, CHEM 153, CHEM 155, CHEM
156, CHEM 251, and CHEM 256) and Physics (PHYS 131, PHYS 132, PHYS 141, and
PHYS 142). Students enrolled in the courses listed above may drop by the
Students are welcome at the
ACADEMIC HONESTY AND THE HONOR CODE
If you have reason to believe
at any point that a student has committed a breach of academic honesty, please
contact the Faculty Chair of the Honor Committee, Cheryl Shanks, directly. Do not first discuss the matter with the
student involved.
During registration in the
fall, all Williams students agree to abide by an academic Honor Code, which is
described in the Course Catalog and in the Student Handbook. The Honor Code covers all aspects of academic
honesty, including the writing of papers and laboratory reports as well as all
quizzes, hour tests, and examinations. Reports of violations of the Honor Code
are reviewed by the Student Honor Committee, which is responsible for
determining the guilt or innocence of the accused, and for recommending
appropriate punishment to the Dean. A
committee of faculty members sits with the Student Honor Committee in an
advisory capacity.
The Honor Committee joins me in requesting
that all your syllabi include an explanation of how the Honor Code applies to all
aspects of evaluated work in your course, especially if you assign
collaborative projects of any kind. As
in the case of attendance policy, making your expectations clear is very
important. Many instructors have found
it helpful to include a sentence like the following on their syllabi: "If you are uncertain how the Honor Code
applies to your work in this course, please ask me." Attached is a memo from Cheryl Shanks,
Faculty Chair of the Honor Committee, explaining the Honor Code
Guidelines.
The Honor Committee has designed a web site with a wide variety of useful information about The Honor Code, procedures relating to it, definitions of plagiarism, and more. Information of special interest to faculty can be found at http://committees.williams.edu/honor-system
WITHDRAWALS FROM
COURSES
A student may be permitted to withdraw
once during the first year and once again during the upperclass years from a
course (incurring a deficiency but no grade penalty) as late as the tenth week
of the semester. A withdrawal, recorded
on the transcript as a “W,” is granted only with the approval of the instructor
and a dean when it is determined that despite conscientious effort to do the
work, continuation in the course would be detrimental to the overall
educational interest or health of the student.
A student may approach a faculty member for the purpose of discussing
his/her interest in withdrawing from a course, or may be referred to the
instructor by a dean. In any event, it
is necessary for the student to discuss the prospect of the withdrawal with
both the instructor and the dean before a decision is reached.
Due to the confidential subject matter
of such cases, medical withdrawals from courses are managed slightly
differently and do not require the instructor’s approval. A dean may, at his or her discretion, and
with a recommendation from a health care provider, withdraw a student from a
course for medical reasons. The dean
will inform the instructor. Medical
withdrawals may be granted at any time during the semester.
EXTENSIONS OF DEADLINES
Deadlines for course work are set by the instructor with the following
limitations:
·
For courses with final exams, the latest that written
work may be due is 5:00 p.m. on the last day of reading period.
·
For courses without final exams, the latest that written
work may be due is 5:00 p.m. on the third-to-last day of the exam period.
·
If work is due before these deadlines, the instructor may
grant an extension up to these deadlines solely at his or her discretion. Short
extensions beyond these deadlines may be granted by a dean but only with the
concurrence of the instructor. Therefore, if a dean believes an extension for a
course is appropriate, he or she will contact the instructor to discuss the
matter and set the new deadline before granting the extension to the student.
·
If students contact you directly requesting extensions
beyond the last day of the reading period for courses with finals, or the
third-to-last day of the exam period for courses without finals, you may either
direct them to the dean's office if you would consider approving an extension,
or else tell them not to bother since you will not approve any extensions.
SCHEDULING FINAL EXAMINATIONS
Final exams may be
given only in the period set aside for them at the end of the semester, and not
during the semester itself or during the reading period. If you wish to have an exception to this
rule, please contact me. Any other
special arrangements for final exams, e.g., a final exam with both take-home
and in-class components, also should be discussed with me in advance.
I would strongly
discourage you from scheduling hour exams during the last week of classes. Exams in that week make it all the more
difficult for students to comply with the faculty’s deadlines for the
submission of final papers.
Students with three or
more consecutive final exams are considered to have a hardship. In such cases, on request of the student, the
Dean’s Office may ask the instructor to consider giving that student a make-up
exam. We make such requests only after
carefully considering the nature of the hardship for the student and for
the instructor; and in no case will we ask for make-ups simply to permit an
early departure or to accommodate a student’s travel plans.
INCOMPLETES AND PRIVATE ARRANGEMENTS FOR COMPLETING WORK
The grade of
"incomplete" is approved by the Dean's Office only in cases of
serious emergencies. In such cases, a
dean, an instructor, and a student may agree to defer dates for papers and
exams until a specified time after the end of the semester.
Faculty should work
directly with the Dean's Office if a student is in academic difficulty at the
end of the semester. Faculty members
should not enter into private arrangements with students for completion
of work at the end of the term. Those
students frequently are having difficulty in other courses, and private arrangements
in one course often works to the detriment of the student and the Committee on
Academic Standing when it reviews records at the end of each semester.
SUBMISSION OF TERM GRADES
By faculty vote, term
grades should be submitted to the Registrar within four days after the final
exam. If there is no exam, grades should
be submitted within four days of the last day of classes or the deadline for
submitting course work, whichever is later.
The reason for this tight schedule may not be obvious. At the end of every term, the Committee on
Academic Standing meets to review the records of students in academic
difficulty; it needs to have all their grades in order to decide whether
students with deficient records will be required to resign or be placed on
probation. The faculty comment sheets required
for "D" and "E" grades are extremely helpful, and the CAS
would like to remind faculty to fill these out as fully as possible. The Committee devotes part of the holiday
vacation to this important work, which is sometimes hampered by missing grades
or other missing information
I appreciate the
difficulty that some of you--particularly those with large courses or with
professional meetings during the holidays--may face in meeting these
deadlines. If you are in that situation,
please let me know; it may be possible to ease some of the problems by getting
grades only for the more critical cases.