The Registrar implemented several new grades in their grading system this past fall semester.
University Registrar Amanda Steele-Middleton explained that these additions were made for federal financial aid compliance.
“Until we implemented the new grades this fall, there was not a systematic way for a faculty member to report that a student had never initiated this required academic activity,” Steele-Middleton said. “There was and is the F grade (student participated in the course but did not successfully complete the course) and an X (student attended or participated in the course but did not complete or officially withdraw), but there was not a way for faculty member to record that there was no record of student attending or participating in the course.”
Grades are also used in the eligibility for student financial aid, if a student does not engage in academic activity it can be noted through the new grades so the aid that was awarded can be returned to the Department of Education.
The addition of the “NR” grade allows a professor to show that a student was not academically active throughout a course.
When this grade is assigned, it indicates that financial aid can return an appropriate portion of financial aid to remain in compliance, according to Steele-Middleton.
“During the review of the grades, we also noticed that there were no equivalent grades for classes graded pass/unsatisfactory,” Steele-Middleton said. “We did not want faculty to use the X or NR (which count like an F in the GPA) for classes graded pass/unsatisfactory, since these grades do not affect the GPA, so we also added the XU (like an X) and an NU (like an NR) to give faculty an option to provide grade information similar to that above for the F, X, and NR, without adversely impacting a student’s GPA.”
These additions don’t really affect students directly. The new grades are a more effective way for the university to track the classes that were not completed and financial aid.
