IU Jacobs School of Music
FACULTY HANDBOOK

ACADEMIC & PERFORMANCE STANDARDS

Student achievement is assessed on an A+ through F grading scale.

The problem that teachers face in giving grades, that is, how to balance objective achievement with individual progress, has to be addressed and reconciled by each faculty member. It is very important that the clearest possible statements be made to students, ideally in a written syllabus at the beginning of a semester, about the basis for grades. Consistency and fairness are respected and appreciated by students. Even in areas such as performance study, chamber music, or ensemble, the basis on which the students are to be graded must be articulated to them very clearly.

Students should also be informed of the university policies on academic misconduct (see the Code of Student Rights, Responsibilities, and Conduct and the Processes and Procedures for Implementation of the Code at IU Bloomington: http://www.dsa.indiana.edu/Code/index1.html.) The teacher should be careful to monitor any possible acts of academic misconduct. Procedures to follow are outlined in the Processes and Procedures document. The teacher should report any violations to the Dean of Students on forms which are available at the Dean of Students website:  http://dsa.indiana.edu/cjp/ (see “Forms and Documents” and also other references). 

 

An Academic Fairness Committee of the Jacobs School of Music, consisting of faculty and students and coordinated by the Associate Dean for Instruction, is available to students who have a grievance concerning grades or other academic matters. This committee also serves as an appeal board for students charged with academic misconduct. The committee follows the procedures outlined in the Code and other School and university documents.  The Associate Dean for Instruction has more information about appeal and committee procedures.

 GRADING PROCEDURES

Note:  several of the paper forms mentioned in this section may change soon to electronic reporting systems.

GRADE ROSTERS AND DEADLINES

Enrollment Verification Rosters

You will receive paper enrollment verification rosters from the Office of the Registrar approximately 5 weeks into the semester. The purpose of these rosters is to verify enrollment in the courses you teach and to resolve enrollment discrepancies. You are expected to return the verified and signed rosters to MARS or the Registrar by the listed deadline. It is particularly important to check early in the semester that everyone who is attending is actually enrolled in the class, and to inform the Registrar of students who are enrolled but not attending. 

Midterm Grade Rosters

Only music freshmen with fewer than 26 credit hours and University Division students with fewer than 56 credit hours are listed and receive grades. Midterm rosters are available online beginning the 8^th week of the semester and are due the following week. Midterm grades must be assigned and entered online using OneStart at https://onestart.iu.edu/.

Final Grade Rosters

Final grades must be assigned and entered online via OneStart (https://onestart.iu.edu/) or Oncourse (https://oncourse.iu.edu/) by 3:00pm on the third day following the last class, jury or final exam. All grades must be entered on time. AIs should not leave campus without fulfilling this responsibility, as students can find themselves unable to graduate or ineligible for financial aid because of missing grades. Check with the faculty member or instrumental coordinator in charge to determine exactly how grades should be reported. For detailed grade entry instructions, please refer to the Registrar’s website at http://registrar.indiana.edu/finalgrades.shtml/.

Please contact the Music Advising and Records Service (MARS) office for assistance with rosters and grading. For undergraduate questions call 855-3743 and for graduate questions call 855-1738.

Recital grades 

Grades for recitals deserve special mention.  When a student reserves a performance space, has a program printed and the hearing approved, it is assumed that he or she intends to perform the recital.  However, there is no way for the academic recorders of the school to know whether the recital was actually performed unless a grade is turned in by the performance study teacher for that recital.  The grade should be written on a copy of the student’s program with the performance study teacher’s signature and given to the undergraduate or graduate records in MARS, MU011, on the first working day following the recital. For Graduate recitals, a written grade request will be sent to the instructor which should be returned to MARS, MU011.

SPECIAL GRADES

Incomplete Grades

If a student is not in attendance during the last two or three weeks of a semester, the instructor may report a grade of I (indicating the work is satisfactory at the end of the semester but has not been completed) if the instructor has reason to believe the absence was beyond the student’s control; if not, the instructor shall record a grade of FN.  The grade of “I” should not be given just because the student got too busy at the end of the semester to complete all the work.  A student may not enroll in a course in which the student has received a grade of Incomplete, except in performance, chamber music, and ensemble. A grade of “I” must be removed (replaced with a grade by the teacher) within one year or it will automatically turn into an “F”. It is the responsibility of the student who has incurred the grade of Incomplete in any course to fulfill the requirements of that course within one calendar year from the date on which the Incomplete is recorded. Incompletes are not removed automatically; the instructor must fill out a Removal of I or R form and submit it to the music undergraduate or graduate offices.

R Grades

The grade of R is used in courses such as research courses and recitals in which completion of the work of the course is not necessarily required at the end of the semester.

Withdrawal Grades

A student may withdraw from class with various financial penalties throughout the semester. Before a given date (see the Official Calendar at http://www.registrar.indiana.edu/) each semester, the student may withdraw without the instructor’s permission with a grade of W. After the automatic W deadline, withdrawal is permitted only if the instructor of record, the chair of the department,  and the dean’s representative approve the request on the basis of urgent, documented reasons relating to the student’s health or equivalent distress.  The desire to avoid a low grade is not an acceptable reason for withdrawal from a course. At that time the teacher will be asked to assign a W if the work to that time was passing or an F, if the work was unsatisfactory. Three signatures are required: Instructor, Chair and [School] Dean.

Pass/Fail Grades

Some classes outside the major field in some degrees may be taken Pass/Fail. The teacher of the class is not aware of who is enrolled P/F, but the registrar converts “A” through “D” grades to “P’s” after the grades have been turned in. Music majors may not take any music courses P/F.

FNN and FN Grades

The grade of “FNN” is given to students who have never attended. The grade of “FN” is given to students who stopped attending, to distinguish the grade from the F awarded for poor performance. The instructor must provide on the electronic grade roster the last date of documented class attendance or participation when awarding the “FN” grade. These grades are important to document our compliance with federal guidelines of financial assistance.

Extended-X Policy

Undergraduate students may petition for a grade substitution under the amended FX (Extended-X) policy. Undergraduate students may retake a course for which they received a grade below an A during the first 45 hours of course work. A student may exercise the option for no more than three courses, totaling no more than 10 credits. A student may use this option only once for a given course. The student’s transcript shall record both grades. For the course retaken, only the second grade shall be counted in the determination of the student’s grade-point average. Any GPA calculated in accord with this policy is marked with an asterisk denoting that a lower grade has been replaced by a second grade in the course. In the Jacobs School of Music, performance study at the 400-level, master class (I500), and ensemble (X0--) are ineligible for this type of grade petition.

Change of Grade and Grade Appeal

The only justification for changing a grade after it has been turned in to the registrar is a miscalculation of points or other clerical error on the teacher’s part. Students cannot do extra work during the summer, for example, and expect that their grade will be raised. To change a grade, the teacher should obtain a Change of Grade Form online at www.music.indiana.edu/faculty/pdf/gradechange.pdf or from the Music Advising and Record Services office, and return the form to that office. Reasons for the requested grade change should be clearly explained. It is Jacobs School of Music policy that no grade can be changed more than six months after it was submitted. The teacher’s change of grade request is then reviewed and approved or denied by the Director of Undergraduate/Graduate Studies (as appropriate) and the Associate Dean for Instruction.

Grade appeals in the Jacobs School of Music are considered by the Academic Fairness Committee; there is no further appeal outside the School.  A student must submit a grade appeal in writing to the Associate Dean for Instruction no later than four weeks after the grade is awarded.

A note on graduate grades

Here are three things you might find useful to know about graduate grades in the School of  Music.

1. Grades are up to you. Nothing from the Graduate Office, including this note, is meant as pressure to give a particular grade. You should assign grades according to your own judgment.

2. Graduate degree and diploma students are expected to earn certain minimum grades; lower grades do not count toward requirements. I mention this because grades on the borderline are the ones that most often lead to disputes and appeals. Here is a brief summary of the requirements; note that some departments have higher standards for certain courses.

Proficiency courses (MM and DM)

            T508                            C or better; B for composition, conducting, music theory

            T509                            C or better

            T 511                           D or better; C for musicology; B for music theory, composition, and conducting

            M541/M542                       C or better

            T545                            B or better (when used for Doctoral Styles Requirement)

            U233-4-5                         C or better

MM degrees

            Major (incl. lessons, recitals) B or better

            Music history requirement       C or better

            Outside Area                    C or better; average of B or better

            Ensemble                  B or better

DM degrees

            Major (incl. lessons, recitals)      B or better

            Minor                                      C or better; average of B; B each course in theory minor

            Tool subjects                        C or better (B or better for some PhD degrees)

Diplomas (PD/AD)

            Lessons                              A- or better

            Recitals                             A- or better

            Chamber Music                        A- or better

            Music courses                        C or better

            Ensemble                             B or better

3. If you would like to see how grades have been distributed in the School of Music in recent semesters, statistics are available online from the Registrar. You can search by instructor, by course or over the entire School. Note that very small courses are not listed to protect students' privacy.

            http://wwwreg.indiana.edu/Gradedistribution/

I hope this information is useful to you.

Daniel R. Melamed

Director of Graduate Studies