Academic Senate Update on Fall 2022 End of Quarter Grading

With the quarter concluded and UC and the UAW entering private mediation as of Friday, December 9th in hopes of resolving the UAW strike with Academic Student Employees (teaching assistants/readers/tutors) and Graduate Student Researchers, we write to update information previously provided by the Senate during Fall quarter 2022. This follows the San Diego Divisional Senate’s December 2, 2022 and November 22, 2022 communications and the November 23, 2022 guidance from the UC Systemwide Academic Senate leadership.

We remind you that the Academic Senate is not involved in negotiations between the University of California administration and the UAW. The information provided below is intended to keep faculty informed and offer options for instructors to make decisions in ways that serve our undergraduate and graduate students.

1. Grade Submission Deadline Extended to December 20th
The Office of the Registrar extended the deadline to submit grades to December 20th at 11:59 pm.

Once the grade submission deadline has passed, Instructors will be able to initiate grade changes beginning December 22nd.
Instructors have up to a year to change their grades.
The period in which an Instructor of Record can designate another person to enter grades into eGrades (called an Authorized Grader) will remain open until December 20th.
If an Instructor does not enter a final grade, there will be a blank grade on the student’s transcript.
A blank grade, if not changed, will lapse to an F at the end of Winter 2023.
Unless you have agreed with the student in advance, assigning an Incomplete grade is not appropriate. Incompletes are only intended for students who have passing performance in the majority of coursework but are not able to complete the course for good cause.
If you have questions about grade submission or eGrades, please email eGrades@ucsd.edu.

2. Information to Help Faculty Mitigate the Impact of Missing Grades
Blank grades on transcripts have negative impacts on students, and we encourage Instructors who have decided not to submit grades to consider the impact on the most vulnerable students. The Division of Undergraduate Education (DUE) and the Registrar have worked to identify those who will be most affected. Since our last communication, the Registrar has concluded that Veterans should not be included in this most vulnerable group (as it has been established that blank grades will not immediately affect their benefits). We are continuing to investigate which groups might be vulnerable.

The DUE sent out notices on December 9th to Instructors to notify them of students who require grades to: a) determine academic standing; b) be eligible for Fall 2022 graduation; c) participate in athletics; d) participate in Education Abroad Programs (EAP); and e) maintain eligibility for financial aid, for recipients on an approved Satisfactory Academic Progress appeal. (See example of letters sent to faculty.) For privacy reasons, no information is being disclosed regarding individual student situations. Combined, there are approximately 1,700 impacted undergraduate students across approximately 2,070 sections. The DUE and Associate Vice Chancellor for Enrollment Management also provided an update on Fall 2022 grading to students on December 6th encouraging students to be in contact with their instructors if they have an extenuating circumstance not noted above.

We are not telling faculty what to do or asking them to take on extra labor. We are providing information faculty can use to decide how to negotiate this difficult time. We urge you to consider the ways you can protect vulnerable students. We remind you that if you do decide to submit grades for these vulnerable students, you should not ask striking TAs to assist you. If you are not planning to submit grades or if you are unable to have all of your grading complete by the new deadline, it is important to preserve course materials for future evaluation of student performance. We are investigating what options might be available to Instructors to assist them in completing grading once the strike is over.

Blank grades will have impacts beyond the immediate ones noted above. Students applying to graduate or professional school or for employment may need Fall 2022 grades for their applications. Grades are also critical to prerequisite enforcement, tracking degree progress, and maintaining eligibility for the disbursement of financial aid. We are in communication with the Financial Aid and Scholarships Office to understand the longer-term implications of blank grades on financial aid. An assessment of financial aid eligibility will occur at the beginning of winter quarter, and unresolved blank grades may impact some students at that time. We will share what we learn after the Financial Aid and Scholarships Office evaluates how many students may become ineligible for financial aid due to missing grades. For questions about student financial aid, please direct students to fas.ucsd.edu or have them email: finaid@ucsd.edu.

3. Grades and Graduate Coursework
Instructors continue to have questions about the distinction between academic work for which a graduate student is seeking credit and work for which the student is being paid and might be striking. In our December 2nd communication, we offered suggestions for Instructors to consider regarding the grading of graduate coursework. We repeat and clarify them here:

We urge Instructors to exercise flexibility and generosity given the circumstances all of us have faced during this difficult strike.
For individual research courses (e.g. 299s) and teaching apprentice courses (e.g. 500s), Instructors have flexibility and may wish to consider student performance up to the point of the strike and assign a grade based on that work. If the enrolled student was fulfilling their duties satisfactorily up to this point, then issuing a satisfactory grade could be seen as appropriate.
Faculty may wish to consider the implications of assigning an “F” or “U” grade in graduate coursework. A cumulative GPA of 3.0 in upper division and graduate coursework is required for graduate students to maintain good academic standing, and they are subject to probation or disqualification if they do not meet these requirements (SD Senate Regulation 515). We suggest that Instructors consult the information provided by the Division of Graduate Education and Postdoctoral Affairs on academic standing and probation and consult with their Department Chair or Program Director if they have any questions.

With the end of the quarter, faculty face a complex set of choices. We will continue to seek out and provide information for all faculty on campus, and we welcome your feedback.

Nancy Postero
Chair
Academic Senate, San Diego Division

John Hildebrand
Vice Chair
Academic Senate, San Diego Division

Geoffrey Cook
Chair
Educational Policy Committee

Tim Gentner
Chair
Graduate Council

Bonnie Kaiser
Chair
Undergraduate Council