Policy makes students to finish incompletes

The School of Arts and Sciences this semester will implement a new policy regarding incompletes that will make College students finish their coursework before they are allowed to graduate, College officials said. Under the new policy, College students will now be given two different types of incompletes -- a "long" and a "short." The short incomplete remains on the student's record until the fourth week of the following semester, at which time, if the work is not resolved, the incomplete automatically turns into an "F." The short incomplete applies to students in all four undergraduate schools of the University, including Nursing, Engineering and Wharton. The second type is the "long" incomplete, and it applies only to students in the College. It allows the student time to resolve the grade until the end of the following semester. If at the end of that semester the grade is not resolved, the incomplete automatically turns into an "F." SAS Dean Rosemary Stevens stated in a letter in this week's Almanac that the long incomplete is available only to students in the College for courses in that school. It does not apply to students in the other schools even if they are taking an SAS course. Assistant to the College Dean Kent Peterman said yesterday that only College students are allowed the long incomplete because the faculty committee that voted on this issue last spring distinguished between humanities assignments that require more time overall, and business or natural sciences which require more tests and problem assignments. Under the previous incomplete policy, incompletes did not automatically convert them to an "F" after an alloted time. In effect, a student could graduate with an incomplete that would not affect the student's GPA, as long as the student had an additional 32 credit units that were complete. Under the new policy, effective this semester, a student cannot graduate with an incomplete, and unresolved coursework will merit an "F." The reason for this change in policy arose out of an examination by the Committee on Undergraduate Education, Peterman said yesterday. The faculty, administrators and students on this committee found that the previous policy, under which there are currently 800 incompletes, was not effective. Therefore, the policy was changed so that students can no longer graduate with an incomplete. "We will hold up graduation . . . until the student takes it into his or her hands to resolve the grade," Peterman said. Although the policy goes into effect this semester, incompletes issued before this year will not follow it and will remain under the old system. College students yesterday had a variety of reactions to this new policy. "It'll get people to kind of grudgingly finish the work . . . cause they have to," said College freshman Abby Beshin. College sophomore Jay Vidyarthi opposed the new policy because he said that if you have enough credits to graduate from other courses then you should not be forced to resolve the grade. "I think a student who's screwed up and got an incomplete is paying the consequences because the student has wasted an entire semester, and financially winds up paying for the class," he said. Although the new policy does not affect a change for students outside of the College, Engineering senior Elvin Ross said that the new policy in the College is a good one. "I think it's fair," he said. "I don't see why anybody would not be able to finish an incomplete in that amount of time." Ross said that engineers have been required to resolve an incomplete by the fourth week of the semester all along and that because there is the option to petition for an extension beyond that, the policy is fair.

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