On February 22, 2022, Ravinder Singh, chair of the CU System Faculty Council Educational Policy and University Standards Committee (EPUS), sent a memo to the deans of schools/colleges on all four CU campuses. The memo asked the deans to conduct a vote of the faculty members of their respective schools and colleges to approve a revision to the current University of Colorado Grading Policy (UGP). The proposed changes are to APS 1025 and involve the changes to section II on Grade Symbols as listed below:
Grade Symbols
The instructor is responsible for whatever grade symbol (A, B, C, D, F, I, IP, P, P+, S, or U) is to be assigned. Special symbols, such as NC, W, and ***, and indications of registration or grade status are not assigned by the instructor but are automatically converted by the grade application system, explained under Special Symbols.
Grade - Credit points per credit hour
- A - superior/excellent - 4
- B - good/better than average - 3
- C - competant/average - 2
- D - below average - 1
- F - failing - 0
- I - incomplete - regarded as F if not completed within a maximum of one year
- IP - in progress - thesis or multi-semester course at the graduate level only
- *P+/P/F - pass plus/pass/fail - applicable for letter-graded courses where the student elects P+/P/F option. Faculty members assign letter grades which are converted as follows:
- P+=C- or greater
- P=D-, D, D+
- F=F
- S/U - satisfactory/unsatisfactory - Applicable for non-letter graded courses only (e.g., experiential, field-based courses). Credit is awarded for S. Neither S nor U is included in gpa. Faculty members assign an S or U as follows:
- S=course requirements are satisfied, or expectations met
- U=course requirements are not satisfied, or expectations not met.
In addition, for consistency and clarity, “pass/fail” has been replaced by “P+/P/F” throughout the
document, and the revision includes minor, necessary edits: change wishes to opt, change a course to
an eligible course, and reorder items under the Procedure section (item 4 is now item 1) (see the link
above for details).
The addition of the "P+" was made during the pandemic and the "S/U" component was approved by the Boulder Faculty Assembly at the February 3, 2022 meeting, along with revisions to the campus grade replacement policy. CU Boulder colleges and schools are in the process of conducting those polls.
Per Regent Law and Policy, the faculty of each campus school and college are to be polled in order to implement the proposed revisions to the University of Colorado Uniform Grading Policy.
Per Regent Policy 5.A.1.B:
(B) Tenured and tenure-track faculty with appropriate participation by instructional, research, and clinical faculty, have the principal responsibility for decisions concerning pedagogy, curriculum, research, scholarly or creative work, academic ethics, and recommendations on the selection and evaluation of faculty. The development of general academic policies shall be a collaborative effort between the faculty and administration.
(1) The faculty shall have the principal role in originating academic policy and standards related to: the initiation and direction of all courses, curricula, and degree offerings; admissions criteria, grading and standards for continuation; regulation of student academic conduct; and determination of candidates for honors and degrees.
Additionally, Regent Law Article 4.A.1 states that :
Article 5.A of the Laws of the Regents specifies the shared governance principles of participation. A school or college faculty shall collaborate with the dean in the shared governance of the school or college. Subject to specific Board of Regents requirements, voting membership of a school or college faculty shall be determined by its faculty.