Fall Grade Submissions Date May Change

The official deadline for professors to submit grades may be earlier next fall semester, according to Tengbo Li ’12, the Undergraduate Council’s Education Committee chair.

Because many deadlines fell on or near Christmas in 2009, the submission deadline for last fall was set back to Jan. 3rd, Dean of Undergraduate Education Jay M. Harris wrote in a December e-mail to The Crimson.

But following last semester’s changed schedule, some students expressed concern that they had still not received some of their grades, even after the Jan. 3 deadline had passed.

In last Wednesday’s Committee on Undergraduate Education meeting, Harris proposed a return to the typical fall rolling grade deadline, according to which grades are due four days after final exams, CUE member Samuel F. Himel ’12 said.

“Students want their grades, and administrators want to take informed action after the break,” Himel said. “Harris hoped that returning to the old system would facilitate that.”

Regardless of whether Harris’ proposal for next fall is approved, the typical four-day rolling grade deadline will stay in effect for the current spring semester.

Since the fall semester ends just before Christmas, requiring course leaders to submit grades on or around Christmas has posed problems in the past.

But the proposed return to the traditional schedule, which is still subject to faculty review, is intended to reduce the number of outstanding grades, give the administration time to resolve grade anomalies, and provide students with advising resources as soon as possible in the spring semester, according to Himel.

Also a CUE member, Li said he thinks the proposed change would benefit students applying to graduate schools, internships, and jobs.

“For those students who have those early deadlines, it gives them an opportunity to send in transcripts that have the whole set of grades,” he said.

Li said he thinks that regardless of the date of the deadline, all students should receive their grades at the same time so that no students are unfairly disadvantaged by incomplete transcripts in their applications.

“The problem now is that some students get all their grades and some don’t,” he said. “If everyone’s on the same plane, that’s fine.”

Li added that he thinks an earlier grade submission deadline will help reduce the negative consequences of late grades.

“Having an earlier submission deadline allows for that human error,” he said. “If professors are turning grades in late, they won’t be as late as they would have been.”

Himel said he thinks an earlier grade deadline will make it easier for students to reflect on their grades.

“A grade is potentially a feedback tool,” he said. “If you get it as soon as possible, it has the most weight and you can reflect on it as meaningfully as possible.”

But Registrar Michael P. Burke said that the proposed deadline change may be difficult for professors.

“The most challenging burden in setting an earlier deadline falls on the faculty who would have less time to grade,” he said.

Burke said that the administration is working hard to address student concerns about timely grades.

“I understand the desire for students to have grades as early as possible and we’ll do what we can to meet that expectation,” he said.

Harris declined to comment on the proposed deadline change because it has not yet been presented to the Faculty.

—Julie M. Zauzmer contributed to the reporting of this story.

—Staff writer Rebecca D. Robbins can be reached at rrobbins@college.harvard.edu.