Teaching

The educational programs of the University and the instructional responsibilities of its faculty are governed by policies, regulations, and procedures set at multiple levels. Most are determined by the individual schools. The University Senate has concurrent powers over aspects of the schools' curricula, and defines University policy when a matter affects more than one school. The instructional programs of the University must also comply with federal and state regulations and with those of the New York State Education Department with which those programs are registered.

Faculty should consult the bulletins of their schools for the latest statements of policy on educational matters. Where questions remain, they should contact the appropriate dean or the Registrar. For policies governing their instructional responsibilities, they also may consult with the Office of the Provost or the University Senate. Increasingly, information about the University is available via the World Wide Web. The University maintains a home page, located at http://www.columbia.edu, that provides access to a wealth of information of use to faculty in meeting their instructional responsibilities.

Instructional Responsibilities

The University leaves the organization and content of courses, in large measure, to the discretion of the faculty and respects their right to express freely their views on the subjects they are teaching. At the same time, it imposes certain obligations on the faculty in order to realize its instructional mission.

Officers of instruction are expected to assume the normal teaching load of faculty of similar rank in their department or school. Teaching loads vary from one school to another and even among departments within a single school. Individuals should consult with their department chair, dean, or vice president if they have any questions about the number of courses they are expected to teach. Variations from the norm are permitted with the authorization of the department chair and dean or vice president.

While faculty are given considerable freedom in deciding what they teach, their courses are subject to the approval of their department or school in order to ensure that they contribute to the curricular programs of the University. Each school has its own procedures for determining the instructional assignments of its faculty. Typically, these decisions are made by the individual officer in consultation with the department chair or dean. New courses must also be approved by the appropriate Committee(s) on Instruction. Faculty should contact their department or dean's office for information on the preparation of course proposals and for the deadlines for their submission. Proposals for major changes to existing courses, such as in the number of points of credit, their level, or manner of instruction, also need approval of the appropriate Committee(s) on Instruction.

Disagreements over what a faculty member will teach may be appealed to the dean or vice president in the first instance, and then to the Provost. If still not satisfied, the faculty member may approach the Committee on Faculty Affairs, Academic Freedom, and Tenure of the University Senate. If the Committee is unable to mediate a resolution to the dispute, it will conduct a hearing and submit its report to the Provost, who will make the final determination on the faculty member's courses.

With the advent of electronic registration, most schools encourage continuing students to register in the fall for the following spring term and in the spring for the following fall. Therefore, the deadline for submitting teaching schedules is well in advance of the start of the term. Faculty should be prepared to submit teaching schedules for the coming academic year by February 1. Once submitted, schedules should be considered final. Requests to change them should be limited to extraordinary circumstances.

It is the responsibility of the faculty to meet all scheduled classes. In the event of unavoidable absence due to emergencies, religious holidays, or other scheduling conflicts, an officer must reschedule missed classes, arrange for a replacement, or provide alternative instruction. Should an officer be absent for an extended period due to illness or injury, the department or school will provide substitute instructors for his or her courses.

No classes may be scheduled during study days or the final examination period.

Faculty should hold regular office hours of sufficient duration to advise students during the academic term. Those hours should be clearly communicated so that students will know when they are available. They are also expected to be available to advise students during registration and the final examination period following the end of classes.

In conducting their classes, faculty should make every effort to be accurate and should show respect for the rights of others to hold opinions differing from their own. They should confine their classes to the subject matter covered by the course and not use them to advocate any cause.

Faculty are expected to give students clear written statements of course requirements and to judge them solely on the basis of academic performance. During the course of the term, they should notify the academic advisors of those students who are at risk of failing their courses. At the end of the term, they are expected to submit their grades to the Registrar in a timely manner. (See "Reporting of Grades," below.)

Full-time officers of instruction are also expected to direct student research, assist in administering special departmental or school examinations, serve on dissertation defenses, and, in the case of senior faculty, supervise doctoral dissertations. Part-time faculty may be asked to assume some of these responsibilities as part of the terms of their contracts.

Assignments of Instructional Facilities

Classroom assignments in the professional schools are made by personnel designated by their deans. For the schools in the Arts and Sciences, the Registrar performs that responsibility, although various departments have first scheduling rights to some instructional facilities. These are assigned in coordination with the Registrar who has the right to schedule classes in any appropriate rooms if they are free at the times needed and if other facilities are not available.

Each term, the Registrar publishes a list of all courses given on the Morningside campus in the Directory of Classes. The Directory also contains the classroom assignments for several Schools and programs in the Health Sciences. The room assignments in the rest of the Health Sciences are communicated directly to their instructors and students by their respective dean's office. The instructional facilities at Barnard and Teachers Colleges are scheduled by their respective Registrars, but their courses also appear in the Directory.

The Directory is available electronically on the Registrar's home page on the World Wide Web at http://www.columbia.edu/cu/registrar. Links to the Directory are also available by clicking on Students or Courses on the University's home page. Faculty may also access course information as well as classroom assignments directly from the University's Student Information System (SIS).

Classes on the Morningside campus are scheduled according to the Uniform University Class Schedule and the scheduling principles developed by the Registrar in conjunction with the Morningside Classroom Committee. Special guidelines exist for the scheduling of electronic or "multimedia" classrooms on the Morningside campus. Information on those classrooms may be found under "Academic Information Systems" (AcIS) in Chapter 8 of this Handbook or by consulting AcIS' home page on the World Wide Web. As classrooms are electronically enhanced, responsibility for their scheduling is turned over to the Registrar. However, departments with prior schedule rights continue to have first access to them, provided teaching schedules are submitted by the February 1 deadline.

Special attention is given to the needs of disabled faculty and students in assigning classrooms. The Registrar works closely with the Director of Disability Services to ensure that classes are scheduled in rooms that can accommodate those individuals. This will sometimes necessitate relocating classes at the start of a term.

Academic Calendar

The University Senate determines the University's academic calendar, with the assistance of the Registrar who reviews it for conformity with the educational regulations of the State of New York.

The University Academic Calendar conforms to the "early semester" model, with classes and final examinations ending before Christmas in the fall and in mid-May in the spring. Classes start on a Tuesday in both semesters. In the fall, classes begin the day after Labor Day and in the spring, the day after the observance of Martin Luther King Jr. Day. Commencement takes place on the Wednesday after the last examination in the spring term.

This calendar is used by the schools in the Arts and Sciences, Barnard College and, with some variations, the professional schools on the Morningside campus. In the Health Sciences, it is also followed by the School of Nursing, the Mailman School of Public Health, and by the Programs in Human Nutrition, Occupational Therapy, and Physical Therapy. The Graduate School of Business and the School of Nursing also offer a third, full term during the summer months. The College of Physicians and Surgeons and the School of Dental and Oral Surgery have separate academic calendars.

Faculty should consult the bulletins of the individual schools and programs for their academic calendars. The calendars are also published in the University Directory and in the Directory of Classes for those schools and programs that use it to list their courses.

University Holidays

The University recognizes the following as official holidays: New Year's Day, Martin Luther King Jr. Day, Memorial Day, Independence Day, Labor Day, Election Day, Thanksgiving, and Christmas. In addition, the day after Thanksgiving and a second week day immediately before or after New Year's and Christmas are designated as University holidays. In the Health Sciences, but not on the Morningside campus, President's Day in February is also an official holiday. Faculty at Harlem Hospital have a separate holiday schedule, which is described in Working at Columbia.

The day before Election Day is designated an academic holiday by all schools on both campuses, with the exception of Law, Physicians and Surgeons, and Dental and Oral Surgery. Students in Social Work must also meet their fieldwork obligations, and many administrative offices remain open on that day.

Religious Holidays

It is the policy of the University, and a requirement of New York State law, to respect the religious beliefs of its faculty, students, and staff. Officers of administration and instruction responsible for the scheduling of required academic activities or essential services are expected to avoid conflicts with religious holidays as much as possible. Such activities include registration, classes, examinations, and various deadlines that are a part of the academic calendar.

When scheduling conflicts prove unavoidable, no student will be penalized for absence due to religious beliefs, and alternative means will be sought for satisfying the academic requirements involved. If a suitable arrangement cannot be worked out between the student and the instructor, they should consult the appropriate department chair, dean, or director. If an additional appeal is needed, it may be taken to the Provost.

Officers of instruction wishing to be excused from classes or other instructional duties that conflict with the observance of their religious holidays must make alternative arrangements in consultation with their department chairs or deans that do not substantially inconvenience students or colleagues.

Class Hours

Regulations of the New York State Education Department define the number of hours of instruction required for each point of academic credit. Starting with those regulations, the University and its schools have established timetables that govern when classes may meet. The Registrar regularly communicates these to the departments and faculty. Aside from ensuring conformity with State requirements, the timetables are designed to make the most efficient use of available classrooms and to minimize scheduling problems for students. Since there are considerable variations among the different schools in their standard class meeting times, faculty should direct questions about acceptable class hours to the appropriate dean's office.

Final Examinations

The policies and procedures governing final course examinations are established and supervised by the Committees on Instruction of the various Faculties and schools. A statement of these policies may be found in their academic bulletins.

Columbia College, the School of General Studies, the Graduate School of Arts and Sciences, the School of International and Public Affairs, and the Fu Foundation School of Engineering and Applied Science observe a common schedule for final examinations. The School of the Arts follows that schedule for its undergraduate but not its graduate courses. Each term, the Registrar publishes a preliminary schedule, known as the "Master University Examination Schedule," for final exams in those schools as part of the Directory of Classes. This schedule may also be found in the services the Registrar lists on the World Wide Web. Midway through the term, it is updated and reissued electronically and in printed form.

The professional schools, other than the Fu Foundation School of Engineering and Applied Science, establish their own examination schedules and publicize them separately.

The final exam schedule, with exam dates, times, and locations, is available on the Web in mid-September. Links are available on the Registrar's home page, the Students page, and the Courses page.

Schools are free to establish their own policies regarding limits on the number of final examinations a student may be required to take on a single day or two consecutive days. Where such limits exist, faculty are expected to cooperate with students in finding an alternative time for an examination, if that is necessary. They also should consult with the dean's office of the school in which the course is offered to determine if there are any restrictions on when the student must complete his or her examinations.

Grades

There are five grading systems in use at the University. Most schools use the letter grades of A, B, C, D, F, with plus and minus as modifiers to the first three, or a variant on this system without the grade of D. In addition, there are four nontraditional grading systems:

• H to F, with variations (in Business);
• P and F only (in Journalism);
• E to F (students accepted to Social Work prior to fall 1997); and
• H, P, and F (in the College of Physicians and Surgeons and in the School of the Arts).

Students always receive traditional letter grades when taking a course outside of their school of enrollment, regardless of the grading system in use in either school. Grade sheets list cross-registrants separately from other students.

The Pass/Fail option, which should not be confused with the P/F grading system, is used only in undergraduate divisions. It enables students to take elective courses they might not otherwise attempt and receive a "Pass" or "Fail" rather than the finer distinctions of the traditional letter grades. The course instructor is not informed that a student has taken this option and assigns a qualitative grade, which the Registrar converts to P or F as appropriate.

Students who have discontinued attendance in a course but who are still officially registered for it are assigned the grades of F* or UW, depending upon their school. In some schools, these grades are also given when a student does not have an acceptable excuse for failing to take a final examination.

The mark of R, which is awarded in place of a qualitative grade, signifies that the student has received credit only for registering for a course. The student is expected to fulfill any requirements set by the instructor, including attendance, with the exception of sitting for a final examination or writing a final paper. Once awarded, R credit cannot be changed, nor may a course that has been taken for R credit be repeated later for a qualitative grade. Students should be instructed to consult with their dean's office if they have questions on which courses they may take for R credit and whether those courses will fulfill degree requirements.

Two grades may be used for students who have not met all of the requirements of a course, depending on their school: ABS (absence) and INC (incomplete). In some schools, these grades may be given at the discretion of the faculty member; in others they can only be granted by the dean or they require the dean's concurrence.

The time limit allowed to make up incompletes varies according to the school of enrollment and the level of the course. Typically, it is one year, although it may be as little as one term or less, or, in the case of some graduate seminars, as long as the instructor chooses. For students who have cross-registered, the time limit is governed by the policies of the school offering the course rather than the school of enrollment. If a student fails to complete the required work within the prescribed time, the grade is automatically changed to F, F*, R, or UW, depending on the school.

Each school's policies on incompletes can be found in its bulletin. A faculty member in need of additional information should consult the appropriate dean's office.

Reporting of Grades

Prior to the beginning of the final examination period of each term, the Office of the Registrar sends faculty members grade sheets for reporting the grades of Columbia students. The grades of students from Teachers College who are enrolled in Columbia courses are also reported on the Columbia grade sheets, but Barnard College issues its own grade sheets for its students.

The Registrar issues separate grade sheets for students who will graduate at the end of the term. These must be returned to the Office of the Registrar no later than 48 hours after the examination and no later than 24 hours if it falls on the last day of the examination period. The grade sheets for everyone else are due no later than 72 hours after the examination.

Grade rosters contain confidential information protected by federal law. Therefore, faculty may not show them to individuals who are not authorized to see them, including students. They also should not ask students to deliver those rosters or change of grade forms to departmental representatives or to the Registrar.

Faculty who are unable to submit a grade because of absence or illness are expected to inform their department chair or dean. Faculty continue to be responsible for submitting grades after resigning or retiring from the University as long as students have the privilege of submitting work required in their courses.

Changes in Grades

Once qualitative grades are given, they may not be improved through the submission of additional work by the student. Except for those grades defined as temporary in nature, grades are considered final upon submission to the Registrar. Changes to final grades normally may be made only to correct an error. Corrections to final grades and changes from temporary to final grades must be made in accordance with the regulations of the student's school and the Registrar's procedures. In all such cases, the changes must be submitted to the appropriate dean in the student's school. If the school gives its approval, the change will then be forwarded to the Registrar for review as to form and for posting.

Students are permitted to appeal grades to the department chair or the dean in the case of disputes that cannot be resolved with the instructor. In such cases, the chair or dean may have the student's work evaluated by a second faculty member. Grades are not changed without first consulting with the instructor and obtaining the approval of the dean of the student's school of enrollment. The grounds for changing a disputed grade are very limited. A dean will authorize an improved grade only when there is compelling evidence that the faculty member acted out of hostility toward the student or the student's grade is clearly out of line with those of other students in the same course who produced work of similar quality. In the absence of such evidence, the dean will defer to the judgment of the instructor.

Students with Disabilities

Columbia is committed to providing students with disabilities with the opportunity to participate fully in its programs so that they may realize their academic and personal potential. To meet that commitment and comply with the University's legal obligations, the Office of Disability Services evaluates the needs of disabled students and arranges for the services, resources, and accommodations they may require.

Students with disabilities are expected to meet the same academic requirements as other students. However, they may require specific arrangements that faculty might not permit to other students, such as the right to tape record class lectures, the assistance of a sign language interpreter, and extended time or separate space for in-class examinations. Such arrangements do not include waiving any requirements in a course or asking faculty to employ a lesser standard in evaluating the student's performance. The Office informs faculty of any accommodations provided to their students, directly or through the appropriate dean's liaison for disabilities, and encourages the students to discuss their needs directly with their instructors.

Students must register with the Office of Disability Services before any accommodations will be made and must do so in a timely manner. Faculty are not required to make accommodations for those who have not registered, nor should they make any academic adjustments for disabled students on their own. They should, instead, refer any student with a disability to the Office. For information on the University's disability policies and their application in the case of individual students, faculty should contact a representative of the Office, located in 802 Lerner Hall. The Office will also help faculty who have disabilities of their own that affect their University duties.

Privacy of Student Records

The University's policy on the release of information on and to students is guided by the Federal Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act of 1974, as amended (sometimes referred to as FERPA or the Buckley Amendment). This policy is reprinted in the student handbook, FACETS; further information can be obtained from the Office of the Registrar. This policy is binding on all University employees, including faculty.

In general, the University will not release a student's transcript or other information from a student's educational records without his or her written consent. The policy also provides that students generally may have access to their educational records at the University. Specific exceptions to both of these statements are set forth in the policy.

Student Discipline

The continuance of each student on the rolls of the University, the receipt of academic credits, graduation, and the conferring of any degree or certificate shall be subject to the disciplinary powers of the University, which shall be free to cancel registration at any time on any grounds it deems advisable. The Trustees and the President have delegated responsibility for student discipline primarily to the deans of the individual schools and divisions. Their administration of that responsibility is known as Dean's Discipline. Although there are certain University-wide norms of conduct, alternatives to the procedural rules of Dean's Discipline exist only for alleged violations of the "Rules of University Conduct" or allegations of sexual assault. A description of the Rules may be found in a later section of this chapter. Information on the University's procedures for investigating complaints of sexual misconduct is contained in FACETS. A faculty member who believes that a student has engaged in an academically dishonest practice, such as cheating on an examination or plagiarism, or whose personal behavior seriously disrupts the academic environment, should consult the appropriate dean's office.