Severe extenuating circumstances may prevent a student from completing their coursework before the end of the academic term. In such cases, the student may petition for "Incomplete Standing", whereby they would prearrange to submit any remaining work in the course by a specified date after the end of the academic session. The following criteria for Incomplete Standing petitions apply to any course operated by the Department of Anthropology:
- Petitioners must have completed at least 70% of their course assessments (assignments, quizzes, tests, exams, etc.), by weighted value of assessments (not number of assessments or mark received) when the petition is submitted to the Chair.
- The Chair will deny any petition that does not clearly demonstrate through formal documentation (or, in the case of confidential situations, have the instructor’s confirmation) of truly extraordinary circumstances. As per University policy, "failure by students to organize their workload is not considered adequate grounds for incomplete standing."
- The Academic Calendar sets out the final date by which the Department must submit the adjusted mark. This is usually mid-February for FA courses; mid-June for WI courses; and mid-September for SU courses.
- Note that this is the deadline by which the Department must submit the final grade. Before then, the instructor must have received all work, had time to mark it, and submitted the adjusted grade to the Chair (cc: AAA).
- Based on past successes and failures by students in this position, it is strongly recommended that the petition set out a deadline for submission of all outstanding work within a month of the end of the course, rather than delaying until the final deadline.
Completed petitions must be received by the Chair no later than, as relevant: December 15 (for a fall-term course) and April 15 (for a winter-term course). For spring and summer courses, the deadline is the first day of exams for the relevant term. Petitions received after these deadlines will be denied. Petitions are submitted by the instructor to the Chair via e-mail message (no form is required), copied to the student and the AAA, and must include the following elements:
- Student's full name and student number
- Course code
- Instructor's confirmation that the student has completed at least 70% of their course assessments
- Justification for incomplete standing (be sure to attach official documentation in support)
- The final date by which the student will submit the work
- The default final mark that student will receive if they do not submit work
- The date by which the instructor will provide the revised grade to the Chair (cc: AAA)
- The date by which the Department will provide the revised grade to the Office of the Registrar (Note: if the RO does not receive a revised grade by that date, the default grade will go into effect).
- Student's agreement to the terms outlined above