To:  EECS Faculty

From:  Chair, EECS



	      GRADUATE COURSES GRADING GUIDELINES 
	  FORMULATED BY THE GRADUATE STUDY COMMITTEE

  
     The inflation of grades and the widely differing grad-
ing levels  which characterize  different  courses, or even 
different versions of the same course, make determining the
ability of a  student from  his or her  grades increasingly
difficult.

     The graduate study committee recognizes grading as  one
of  the  responsibilities  of each individual instructor and
firmly believes that the right of each instructor to  choose
the grading policy for his or her course should be preserved
and protected.  On the other hand, the committee feels  that
the  adoption  of  drastically  different  policies  for the
course  offered by the same academic  unit,  or  of  polices
which tend  to make the  interpretation of grades impossible,
is unfair to the students.

     The dilemma between the requirements of academic  free-
dom  and those of fairness to the students can be solved, in
the opinion of the committee, by proposing guidelines  which
the  faculty should discuss, amend and  finely accept not as
binding rules, but as expressions  of  the  desires  of  the
majority.   The  committee  therefore proposes the following
guidelines for grading in graduate courses.

1.   The requirements of a GPA of 3.5 in the major  for  the
     Ph.D  degree  and  of  a GPA of 3.0 for the M.S. degree
     should be reflected in the grading policy as follows:

            a.  Grades A+, A, A- should be  given  when  the
            student's  performance  in  the  course  is of a
            quality expected of a Ph.D. student.

            b.  Grades B+ and B should  be  given  when  the
            work  done  is  appropriate for an M.S. student,
            but is not of the quality expected of Ph.D  stu-
            dents.

            c.  Grades B- and below should be given when the
            work  is not of the quality expected of graduate
            students in the department.


2.   The average grade given in our  F'75  graduate  courses
     corresponded  to a GPA of 3.47, down from 3.61 in S'75.
     The committee feels that this  decline  is  beneficial,
     but  that  a  further  reduction  would  facilitate the
     interpretation  of  student's  grades.   The  Committee
     recommends that instructors try to adjust their grading
     policies to  make  the average in a  "normal"  class be
     about  3.40.  

3.   Class averages less then 3.2 or greater than 3.6 should
     be considered exceptional. However, they might be  jus-
     tified in certain special  cases.