Wright State campus | Photograph by Soham Parikh | The Wright State Guardian
During the Wright State University (WSU) Faculty Senate meeting on Dec. 7, WSU Faculty Senators proposed and unanimously voted in support of converting undergraduate students failing grades for both summer and fall semesters to a U grade, and X grades to XU.
Converting a student’s failing grade to that of U or XU, prevents that undergraduate students’ GPA from being affected, as U and XU grades are not calculated into grade point averages.
Why change grades?
“With the very difficult transition into this fall semester, the proposal before you is meant to try to help people who have struggled in one or multiple classes, and so that their GPA is not harmed,” said Faculty Senate President Laura Luehrmann while addressing the proposal.
Students who receive a failing grade due to violations of academic integrity however, are not included within this process.
“Any student who receives an F grade as a result of sanction for a violation of academic integrity, that F grade will stand.”
Faculty Senate President Luehrmann informed Senators that this is the same practice that was followed last spring, where failing grade conversions also took place.
“After grades are filed there will be a batch grade conversion,” said Luehrmann.
“Then the Registrar’s Office reaches out to the Student Conduct Office for a list of students who have received an F grade because of a violation of academic integrity. At this time, that converted grade of an XU goes back to the original F grade.”
President Luehrmann also stated that acting in fairness, there will also be failing grade conversions for those students who received an F grade during the summer semester.
“We have worked very closely with the Financial Aid Office, Student Success and with the Registrar,” said Luehrmann.
“Last summer there were 323 students who received either an F or an X grade during the semester. We will be changing the transcripts of these students to accurately reflect the proposal approved today, which will in turn increase the GPA of those 323 students.”
Discussion to include students at the graduate level in grade conversion efforts was brought up amongst Faculty Senators, however once voted upon, was declined by the majority to be included.
Addressing questions
With grade conversion policies now approved, students may be wondering whether or not this is something they have to opt-in to, or if grade changing procedures will happen automatically.
“All faculty will submit their grades no later than noon on Dec. 16. At this time, all grades of F will be automatically converted to U. All X grades will be converted to XU,” according to WSU.
“Similar to the impact of an F or X grade, the grade of U or XU does not confer credit. The U or XU grade will not be factored into the student’s grade point average. Hours are still counted as attempted, but not earned, and have the same impact on completion and maximum timeframe for financial aid satisfactory academic progress,” according to WSU.
In regard to questions concerning financial aid, both X and XU grades indicate that at some point the student stopped participating in the course and are therefore considered to have unofficially withdrawn from the course, and are subject to Return of Title IV.
“Both the X and XU grade denote that a student attended or participated in a course effort but did not complete the course or officially withdraw,” WSU said. “If a student receives a X or XU grade in combination with all other grades being a combination of W, N, NR, NU, W, and K, they are considered to have unofficially withdrawn and are subject to Return of Title IV.”
