ACADEMIC GRADE POLICIES

Each student’s performance will be graded as described in the course syllabus provided by each faculty member at the start of a course. A final course grade may be based on a variety of assessments such as written, oral, or practical exams, assignments, demonstrations, and class participation.

Midterm scores are provided at the mid-point of each course in Canvas to help students monitor their progress. Students are responsible for checking their grades regularly and setting up conferences with faculty in a timely fashion when they have questions about their grades or progress.

INCOMPLETE POLICY

The grade of Incomplete (I) may be issued in cases where a student has satisfactorily completed at least 70% of required coursework and, due to circumstances beyond the student’s control, cannot successfully complete the course by the last day of the trimester. An Incomplete is not appropriate for cases of non-attendance, poor academic performance, or a student’s intention to repeat the course.

A student must initiate the request for an Incomplete grade; instructors may not assign an Incomplete grade without a written student request. Students must submit a written request to their instructor that includes a description of the extenuating circumstance and, where feasible, supporting documentation. The instructor determines whether the request meets the criteria above and, if granted, must submit an Incomplete Grade Form to their Program Director (College of Health Sciences) or Division Chair (College of Chiropractic) for approval prior to submission to the Registrar’s Office for processing. Incomplete requests require approval from both the instructor and the Program Director or Division Chair before an Incomplete grade may be assigned.

The Incomplete Grade Form documents the student’s and faculty member’s acknowledgement of the outstanding course requirements and associated deadlines for completion. Upon completion of the outstanding requirements, the instructor will submit a Grade Change Form to their Program Director or Division Chair to reflect the earned grade. This form will then be submitted to the Registrar’s Office for processing. In the event the student does not complete the terms of the Incomplete agreement, the grade will be changed to an F.

A student may not enroll in the same course while an I grade is outstanding. Students must satisfactorily complete an incomplete course before registering for courses for which the incomplete course is a prerequisite. In the College of Health Sciences, where programs are structured with Session I (weeks one through seven) and Session II (weeks eight through fourteen) within a single trimester, a student who receives an Incomplete in a Session I course may not enroll in or persist into a Session II course for which the Session I course is a prerequisite. The Incomplete must be resolved prior to the start of Session II. If the Incomplete is not resolved by the first day of Session II, the student will be removed from any Session II course for which the incomplete Session I course is a prerequisite and will be required to repeat the Session I course in a future trimester. In the DC program, where courses may be prerequisites for the following trimester’s course sequence, the student may attend the next trimester’s course during the two-week Add/Drop period. If the student satisfactorily completes the incomplete course during the allotted time, the student will be added to the next course’s roster. If they do not pass the incomplete course by the end of the Add/Drop period, they will be registered to repeat that course and dropped from any courses for which the repeated course is a prerequisite.

In the event a faculty member denies an Incomplete request, the student may appeal the decision to the Dean of their respective college. Appeal decisions are final and will be communicated in writing to the student and faculty member.

Considering the timelines for rectifying incomplete grades (see Procedures), written requests and decisions must be made and communicated promptly.

A student's anticipated graduation date may be impacted if an Incomplete grade is granted in the final trimester and/or courses of their academic program. If the incomplete is rectified before the first day of the following trimester, the conferral date used will be of the original graduating trimester. If the incomplete is rectified on the first day of the following trimester or after, the conferral date used will be the next upcoming graduation date. Graduation will not be posted on the students record for a future date.

TIMELINES FOR RECTIFYING INCOMPLETE GRADES

College of Chiropractic

The deadline to rectify an Incomplete grade in the DC Program is the end of the Add/Drop period of the following trimester, which is at the beginning of week three.

College of Health Sciences

The deadline to rectify an Incomplete grade in the program is the end of the Add/Drop period of the following trimester. Each program’s Add/Drop dates are noted in the academic calendar. Exception — Session I Incomplete with Session II Prerequisite Dependency: Where a student in the College of Health Sciences receives an Incomplete in a Session I course that is a prerequisite for a Session II course within the same trimester, the deadline to rectify the Incomplete is the first day of Session II of that trimester. The standard end-of-Add/Drop deadline for the following trimester does not apply in this circumstance. If the Incomplete is not resolved by the first day of Session II, the student will be removed from the dependent Session II course and must repeat the Session I course. The Program Director is responsible for identifying any such prerequisite dependency at the time the Incomplete is approved and for notifying the student and the Registrar’s Office of the applicable earlier deadline in writing.

Extended Timelines - Extraordinary Circumstances

In extraordinary circumstances, the Dean of the respective college may approve an alternate, longer time period for an incomplete grade. Such requests must be submitted in writing by the student’s Program Director or Division Chair to the Dean prior to the standard deadline and are subject to the Dean’s sole discretion.

GRADE APPEALS

The purpose of the grade appeal policy is to provide a safeguard against arbitrary, capricious, and prejudiced grading while respecting the academic responsibility of the faculty.

Thus, the policy recognizes the following:

1. Every student has the right to receive a grade assigned upon a fair and unprejudiced assessment of their knowledge and ability that is neither arbitrary nor capricious; and,
   

2. Faculty have the right to assign a grade based on any method that is professionally acceptable, submitted in writing to all students and applied equally. Faculty have the responsibility to provide careful evaluation and timely assignment of appropriate grades. Course and project grading methods should be explained to students prior to the assessment of the assignment. Logan University presumes that the judgment of the faculty of record is authoritative, and the final grade assigned is correct.
   

3. In extenuating circumstances, the Vice President of the appropriate college has the authority and justification to override a grade appeal decision based on the thorough knowledge of the facts of the appeal.

A grade appeal is confined to charges of arbitrary and capricious grading toward an individual student and may not involve a challenge of a faculty member’s grading standard. While a student has a right to expect thoughtful and clearly defined approaches to course and project grading, it must be recognized that varied standards and individual approaches to grading are valid.

The grade appeal considers whether a grade was determined in a fair and appropriate manner; it does not grade or re-grade an individual assignment or project.

The student must substantiate the claim that their grade represents unfair treatment compared to the standard applied to other students. In the absence of compelling reasons, such as clerical errors, prejudice, arbitrariness or capriciousness, the grade assigned by the faculty of record is considered final. In a grade appeal, only arbitrariness, prejudice and/or error will be considered as legitimate grounds for an appeal.

Arbitrariness: The grade awarded represents such a substantial departure from accepted academic norms as to demonstrate the instructor did not actually exercise professional judgment.

Prejudice: The grade awarded was motivated by ill will and is not indicative of the student’s academic performance.

Error: The instructor made a mistake in fact. This grade appeal procedure applies only when a student initiates a grade appeal and not when the instructor decides to change a grade on his or her own initiative.

This procedure does not cover instances in which students have been assigned grades based on academic dishonesty or academic misconduct, which are addressed in the Academic Honesty Policy.

Also excluded from this procedure are grade appeals alleging discrimination, harassment, or retaliation in violation of the Sexual Harassment Policy.

The Grade Appeal Procedure is designed to resolve a disagreement between student and instructor concerning the assignment of a grade in an expeditious and collegial manner. The intent is to provide a mechanism for the informal discussion of differences of opinion and for the formal adjudication by faculty only when necessary.

A student wishing to appeal a grade in any aspect other than an apparent grading error must adhere to the following policy:

1. The appeal must be of a final grade issued in the course (this can include an appeal of how a portion of the final grade affected the overall final grade issued).
   

2. The student must discuss the appeal with the lead instructor/supervising clinician within one week of the grade being issued.
   

3. If after this discussion the student believes their grade was assigned in an arbitrary and/or capricious manner, the following steps must be completed no later than two weeks following the assignment of the grade. In the event the grade was issued less than a week prior to the start of a trimester break, the time count begins upon return from break and is the same as above.
   

4. The written appeal shall go to the faculty member’s supervisor and shall include the following:

   1. Copy of the course syllabus with the grading criteria.
      

   2. Basis for the appeal, which must include evidence that the grade was not fairly assigned consistent with the established grading criteria and/or was assigned in an arbitrary or capricious manner.
      

5. The supervisor will have one week to investigate the matter by reading the material and talking with the instructor and student.
   

   1. The supervisor will render a decision to either change the grade or uphold the grade. In the event the student wishes to appeal the decision of the supervisor, he/she must do so in writing within three days of the supervisor’s decision to the Vice President of the college. The Vice President has one week to render a decision to change the grade, uphold the grade, or form an ad hoc committee to make a recommendation. The decision of the Vice President is final.
      

6. If an ad hoc committee is formed, it shall consist of two faculty members from within the same department/division and one faculty member from a different department/division.

LAST DATE OF ATTENDANCE

The last date of attendance is determined by one of two things:

1. The last day of your last trimester of enrollment; or
   

2. The date your Intent to Withdraw form is submitted to the institution.

An alternate date may be used if the student provides appropriate documented evidence a different attendance date is appropriate. Simply asking questions about the process to withdraw is not considered intent or evidence.

INSTITUTIONAL ABANDONMENT

Institutional Abandonment occurs when a student who originally established attendance within a given trimester fails to submit a substantial amount of course assessments and fails all of their registered courses within the given trimester. In these cases, a student will earn a WF on their transcript.

Where Institutional Abandonment is determined, the University reserves the right to re-verify attendance via any method available (faculty record keeping, LMS log in data, etc.) and determine if the student forfeited their federal aid eligibility by abandoning the institution. Please see the refund policy for the financial consequences of this action.

GRADING SCALES

End-of-course grades are rounded to the nearest whole number.

Examples:

69.51% = 70%

69.44% = 69%

Logan University uses a 4.0 grading scale to calculate grade point averages.

Grade point averages are not rounded.

GRADUATE DEGREE PROGRAMS

Doctorate and master’s programs do not use a D in their grading schema. All graduate degree programs, except the Doctor of Chiropractic, require a B average (3.0) for graduation. Students in these programs may be required to repeat courses where a C was earned if their CGPA falls below 3.0.

While Doctor of Chiropractic students are not required to have a B average, statistically, students with a 3.0 or higher are the most successful on national boards (see NBCE requirements). The graduation requirement for the Doctor of Chiropractic is above a C average at 2.25.

For information regarding the Master of Science in Applied Nutrition and Dietetics grading and required competency grades, please refer to the program handbook available on www.Logan.edu.

UNDERGRADUATE DEGREE PROGRAMS

NOTIFICATION OF GRADES

Graded assessments not only provide evidence of progress toward course outcomes, but they are also teaching tools. With that in mind, faculty will provide opportunities for summative feedback on all graded assignments to help students in the learning process. This may be through written or verbal feedback and may be automatic or by appointment.

GRADES

• Graded classroom assessments will be returned within one week of the due date.
  

• Final exam grades will be posted within one week of the exam date. Unofficial course grades may be viewed in Canvas as soon as they are posted by the faculty member.
  

• Students may view their official final course grades through Self Service on the Monday following final exams.

GRADE RECORDS/GRADE POSTING

In accordance with the recommendations under FERPA, student grades are not posted in a public forum either by name, social security number, or student identification number. FERPA permits the posting of grades only if the student is assigned a unique identifier only known by the student and individual faculty member.

FACULTY GRADE CHANGE PROCEDURE

If an instructor finds that he or she has made an error in submitting a final grade and/or an instructor needs to change an incomplete to a letter grade, the instructor may request a grade change by submitting a completed grade change form to the Registrar at any time prior to a student’s graduation. The grade change form must include an approved reason for the change in grade and must be approved by the Vice President of the college.