Final Exam Policy

Final examinations are scheduled during the final week of each regular term of the academic year (fall and spring semesters, and summer session) according to a schedule published by the Registrar at the beginning of each term. Final examinations are an integral part of almost all courses and may be comprehensive with content covering the entire term’s work in the course or restricted to a limited portion of the term’s work at the discretion of the course instructor.

An instructor may assign a paper or project to serve as all or part of a final examination; such papers must be assigned no later than three weeks before the beginning of the examination period and must be submitted before the regularly scheduled final examination period for that course. Oral final examinations also may be administered, but must be confined to the regularly scheduled final examination period for the course.

The following specific conditions are integral parts of the University’s final examination policy:

• No examination activities may be conducted during the five class days immediately preceding the start of final examination week with the following exceptions:
  • Laboratory examinations in science classes may be administered if limited in content to laboratory material, and conducted within the time limitations of the regularly scheduled laboratory session for that week. Such laboratory examinations must be scheduled in the course syllabus distributed at the beginning of the term.
  • Lecture hour examinations over a limited amount of work may be administered in any discipline if they are conducted within the time limitations of one regularly scheduled class period. Such lecture examinations must be scheduled in the course syllabus distributed at the beginning of the term.
  • Other regularly scheduled procedures for evaluation may be utilized if limited in content to a specific portion of term work, administered within the limits of one class session, and scheduled in the course syllabus distributed at the beginning of the term.
• Final examinations are limited to a maximum of two hours’ duration. Faculty members may allow 15 extra minutes maximum at the close of a final examination period to enable students to complete their work.
• Course instructors, at their own discretion, may exempt students who have an “A” average from final examinations on the basis of their academic performance up to the beginning of the examination period.
• No examination may be rescheduled from the time indicated in the published examination schedule without the approval of the Chief Academic Officer. Instructors desiring to reschedule an examination for an entire class must seek approval of the Chief Academic Officer, who will ascertain that no students in the course will be disadvantaged before approving such a change.
• Students with unusual conflicts, such as having more than two final examinations scheduled in one day or with other unusual hardships may take a final examination at a time other than the scheduled examination period with the approval of both the course instructor and the Chief Academic Officer.
• Student failure to take a final examination as scheduled does not constitute grounds for an incomplete grade for the course. In such cases, the missed final examination is graded as an “F” and averaged appropriately with other course requirements to determine a final course grade.
• Course instructors may, at their own discretion, return final examinations to students.
• All final grades are reported by the Registrar.