Registrar issues firmer guidance on Incompletes

during my first year of college, they weren’t talked about by coaches, faculty, or really any of my teammates. The topic felt taboo. I was slowly killing myself (something I will get more into later), and felt deeply alone. When I finally reached the point of wanting help, I had trouble finding resources. I didn’t know who to talk to, and since no one talked about the issue, it felt far too daunting to bring it up myself.

>> Continued on page 6

By Nina Baker bakernin@grinnell.edu

The Committee on Academic Standing (CAS) issued firmer guidance on Grinnell College’s incomplete course work policies last semester, resulting in an earlier final deadline for Incomplete requests. By requesting an Incomplete, students with extenuating circumstances can take two weeks after the end of finals to turn in course work. The College is now reaffirming their stance on the appropriate circumstances for when Incompletes can be granted, a change from pandemic-era policy.

Between 2012 and 2020, the total number of Incompletes issued to students ranged between 30 and 70 each semester, according to minutes from the Dec. 1 faculty meeting. In the spring 2020 semester, after students were instructed to leave campus and attend courses remotely due to the COVID-19 pandemic, Incompletes jumped to 176 per semester and maintained a similar rate until fall 2022.

Starting in spring 2020, the CAS changed the final deadline to request an Incomplete multiple times. Initially the deadline was extended to the Monday before finals, and was extended farther to through the end of finals week in fall 2021. The current policy allows students to request an Incomplete by 5 p.m. on Reading Day, the Monday before finals begin.

In making the change, Joyce Stern `91, the dean for student success and academic advising, said that the committee sought to adjust from pandemic-era measures while still acknowledging that the pre-pandemic deadline may have been too fast.

“Those two years were actually exceptions to the rule of the deadline [being] on Friday at the end of classes. That part of the policy has been in place [since] I started in 2000,” Stern said.

The new deadline will allow for a greater degree of leniency than before the pandemic, according to Stern.

“The new deadline gives students an extra three days to kind of assess what their finals are looking like and be able to ask for extra time,” she said.

Stern said that the new guidelines in part stem from a push to get faculty, students and staff to understand the original intent for Incompletes.

“Students were taking an awful lot of work home with them. I kind of understand why it was happening,” Stern said. “But, that’s not really a

>> Continued on page 2 CORNELIA