Baruch College Faculty and Staff:

As you know, the transit strike has disrupted our final exam schedule.
Fortunately, the strike has ended in time for the exams on Friday, December
23 to be given as scheduled. The fact remains that we have already had to
cancel three days of exams and these will have to be made up at a later
date. We are working on the room assignments for these exams and hope to
have most, if not all, given in the originally-scheduled location. The
revised exam schedule is as follows:
 
Original Examination Dates: Revised Exam Dates    
Tuesday, December 20, 2005 Tuesday, January 3, 2006    
Wednesday, December 21, 2005 Wednesday, January 4, 2006    
Thursday, December 22, 2005 Thursday, January 5, 2006  

The revised examination schedule will no doubt cause hardship to many
students whose travel plans, winter intersession coursework, or other
responsibilities conflict with a January examination period. This will be a
particular problem for those students who are participating in study abroad
programs. I urge faculty members to be as flexible as possible in
accommodating students by providing, where appropriate, alternate means of
completing courses (e.g., take-home or Blackboard administered exams,
make-up exams, alternative assignments, grading based on coursework to date,
etc.). The College will waive the fee that is normally charged to students
for the administration of a makeup exam.
Similarly, faculty who are unable to administer an exam on the assigned date
during the January intersession may choose to offer an alternative route to
course completion such as an online or emailed at-home final or an
alternative assignment. 

Due to the transit strike, we will extend WebGrade availability until
January 14, which is one week after the exams are scheduled to end under the
revised schedule. Students who can not make the rescheduled final exams are
being instructed to contact their professor.   These students should be
assigned a grade of “ABS” (WebGrade requires that grades be entered for all
students). We are working on providing an easy mechanism for the submission
of final grades for these individuals.  The specifics will be announced at a
later date.
Please make every effort to communicate as clearly and completely with your
students as possible. Please post specific information regarding final
examinations and other course requirements on your classes’ Blackboard sites
if you use them.  Alert your departmental staff to any particular
information students may seek over the telephone. You may also want to
adjust your voicemail greeting to update students, and/or suggest ways they
may contact you if necessary.

David Dannenbring, Provost