2005-06 Greenville College Catalog

Academic Information

Educational Records

• A— Superior scholarship
• B—Scholarship distinctly above the average
• C—Satisfactory achievement
• D—Passing quality
• F—Failure

Audits: Audited courses appear on the transcript with either a grade of T (successful audit) or N (unsuccessful audit). Students who audit courses receive no college credit and grades for audited courses do not affect the student's GPA. See “Auditing” for more information.

Incompletes: Faculty may assign grades of “I” when work for a course is incomplete at the end of the term and the cause of the delay was out of the student's control. Incompletes may only be given when the instructor and the student have arrived at a plan for work to be completed. A written plan for completion of all work must be submitted to the Records Office at the end of the term. The grade may be changed to any other grade by the end of the following semester. Unless the instructor submits another grade, a grade of F will automatically be assigned. The registrar must approve extensions beyond the close of the following semester. Students with an incomplete grade at the end of a semester are ineligible to be recognized on the Dean's List

Pass/Fail Courses: Some courses such as student teaching or other practica are graded on a pass/fail basis. Students may also elect to take other courses on a pass/fail basis. This option may be used in only one course per year, and the course may not be a general education requirement or part of the student's major. To take a course on this basis, a form must be filled out in the Records Office during the first two weeks of the semester.

A passing grade is indicated by the letter S (for satisfactory), and may be assigned when academic work was at least at the C- level. A failing grade is indicated by the letter U (for unsatisfactory) and indicates work at the F or D level. All courses recorded with S grades count toward graduation; courses with U grades do not. In either case, the credits do not affect the GPA.

Withdrawals: Students withdrawing from a course receive a grade of W regardless of the quality of their work.

Alternative grades such as T, N, I, S, U, and W do not have grade points associated with them.

Grade point averages take into account three things: grades in each course, the number of credits in each course, and the total number of graded credit hours. To compute GPA, grades are converted to g rade points and then multiplied by the number of credit hours in a course. This allows courses carrying more credit to impact GPA more heavily than courses carrying little credit. For example, an “A” in a four credit course has more of an impact on GPA than an “A” in a one credit course. The product of grade point multiplied by course credit creates a value referred to as a quality point. GPA is the sum of quality points divided by the sum of credit hours that have been graded:

The College GPA is computed only on courses taken in residence at Greenville. For courses that are repeated, only the highest grade received affects GPA. If a course is repeated outside of Greenville College and transferred back, only the grade taken at GC (even if it is lower) will affect GPA. GPA is not influenced by grades in audited or pass/fail courses, those courses currently incomplete, or courses from which students have withdrawn.

Grade Reports
Grade reports are mailed to students at their home address at the end of each semester or term. These usually arrive within two weeks of the end of a term. Students not receiving a grade report in a timely manner should contact the Records Office at 618-664-7025 or by email at records@greenville.edu.

Transcripts
Upon written request of a student, the Records Office will issue an official transcript of credits. It is preferable that a student request a copy of their transcript on the web at http://www.greenville.edu. A student may also request a copy of their transcript by mail (see address in table below), by fax (618-664-9775), or in person at the Records Office. When ordering a transcript by mail or fax, please include proper payment for the services requested (see table below). Checks, money orders, and credit cards are accepted. Cash will be accepted for students ordering transcripts in person.

Students (current and former) with unpaid tuition accounts or delinquent Greenville College loan accounts (including the Federal Perkins Loan program) will not be furnished a transcript or receive a diploma until their tuition account is paid in full and/or their school loan account is current.

Unofficial transcripts are only available to currently enrolled students. Students may access and print their unofficial transcript from their student information web page.

A federal statute called the Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act (FERPA) grants students certain rights with regard to their educational records and governs the release of and access to educational records. Greenville College accords students all rights granted under FERPA.

FERPA gives students the right to inspect and review information contained in their educational records, to challenge the contents of their educational records, to have a hearing if the outcome of the challenge is unsatisfactory, and to submit explanatory statements for inclusion in their files if they feel the hearing panel's decisions are unacceptable. The Records Office at Greenville College has been designated by the institution to coordinate the inspection and review of procedures for student educational records, which include admissions, personal, and academic files. Students wishing to review their educational records must give a written request to the registrar listing the item or items of interest. Only records covered in FERPA are made available within 45 days of the request.

Students may not inspect and review the following as outlined by the Act: financial information submitted by their parents; confidential letters and recommendations associated with admissions, employment or job placement, or honors to which they have waived their rights of inspection and review; or educational records containing information about more than one student, in which case the institution permits access only to that part of the record which pertains to the inquiring student.

Students, parents, and other interested parties should be aware that not all educational records are treated alike. Some are confidential and some are not. Information that is not confidential is called directory information. In contrast to confidential information, directory information can be freely published or made available to interested parties.

The College has defined the following as directory information: the student's name, parents' names and addresses, campus and home addresses, electronic mail address, telephone numbers, date and place of birth, participation in officially recognized activities and sports, dates of attendance, enrollment status (e.g. undergraduate or graduate, full time or part time), major field of study, degrees and awards received, denominational or religious preference, the most recent previous school attended, and for members of athletic teams, height, weight and position played. The College also considers photographs (non-captioned) to be directory information. As such, release of photographs also is permitted.

Students may restrict the release of their directory information to third parties by annually submitting a signed and dated statement to the Records Office within the first two weeks of a semester. Signed statements restricting the release of directory information expire at the beginning of each fall semester. If students do not restrict the release of directory information, Greenville College may make public or release such information to third parties at its discretion.

All educational records that are not considered directory information are confidential. Confidential information is released or accessible only to certain parties. According to FERPA, these confidential records may be released only to the student him- or herself, parents of students who have demonstrated that they claim the student as a dependent on their federal income tax form, other parties when a student requests a release of such information to the College in writing, or in compliance with a subpoena. Parents can demonstrate that they claim a student as a dependent on a federal income tax form by providing a copy of federal tax form 1040 to the Records Office for the most recent tax year. Parents must supply the tax form to the College annually. Evidence that a parent claims a student as a dependent expires on April 15 of each year.

Under FERPA confidential records are accessible to personnel acting in the student's direct educational interest or to others in the case of an emergency in which access to educational records may help protect the health or safety of students or other person. Personnel acting in the student's educational interest may include those employees in administrative, supervisory, academic, research, or support staff positions; a person or organization with whom the College has contracted (such as an attorney, auditor, or collection agent); a person serving on the Board of Trustees; a student serving on an official committee such as a disciplinary or grievance committee or assisting another school official in performing his or her tasks. No other party shall have access to, nor does the institution release any confidential information from students' education records without the written consent of the student.

Students have the right to file a complaint concerning alleged failures by Greenville College to comply with the requirements of FERPA with the U.S. Department of Education at the following address:

Family Policy Compliance Office
U.S. Department of Education
400 Maryland Avenue, SW
Washington, D.C. 20202-5901

(Adapted from American Association of Collegiate Registrars and Admissions Officers. The 2001 AACRAO FERPA Guide. Washington, D.C.: American Association of Collegiate Registrars and Admissions Officers.)

Last updated: August 2, 2005