Faculty Senate revisited early warning grades and heard a proposal on graduate student parental leave.
ASUI President Kallyn Mai referred to timely feedback over timely grading during her presentation. Mai expanded that timely grading is not as comprehensive as timely feedback.
“It’s not a one size fits all solution,” Mai said. “That increased communication is really important.”
The goals of timely feedback brought by ASUI cover early warning grades and midterms grades. The goal is for 75% of faculty to send in early warning grades after the fourth week of the semester and 90% of faculty to post midterm grades after the eighth week of the semester.
“(Grades are) really key to determine the success of the course moving forward in the last eight weeks,” Mai said.
Reporting methods used to find data on timely grading from faculty include ASUI’s collaboration with the IT department. Platforms used to find feedback are Canvas, Vandal Star and VandalWeb.
Mai said goals of timely feedback will be achieved together through policy adjustments, understanding the effects on retention and increased communication.
Seth Rose, a graduate support assistant, presented a potential policy of graduate student parental leave. Rose said the policy would provide full time graduate students four weeks of non-paid parental leave.
“This will help maintain graduate students’ degree seeking status and keep all of their tuition waivers that they have and shield from any discrimination,” Rose said.
Rose said the policy was presented recently to the UI Graduate Council and passed unanimously. University of Montana and Washington State University have similar protection policies.
Sierra Pesnell can be reached at [email protected]