Faculty & Staff Resources

All grades should be submitted online through Workday.

1. Log into Workday. On your homepage, select the Teaching application. 

2. In the Teaching section, select Assign Final Grades. (Note: You may need to select “More” to expand the menu.)

3. Select the Student Course Section prompt to open a drop-down menu. 

4. Select My Assigned Course Sections and then the appropriate academic period (2023 Fall Semester). 

5. Select the course for which you would like to assign final grades, then OK to access your grading roster for that course.

6. From the Final Grade drop-down list, select the appropriate grade for each student. Please review the entire roster to ensure a grade has been entered for each eligible student. 

7. When complete, click Submit, then the Confirm checkbox. 

Detailed instructions for assigning grades online are available in the Workday Help Center under Assign Final Grades. If you are unable to enter your grades online and need to submit them via scanned hard copy instead, please email our office at registrar@smith.edu.

Acceptable Smith College grades are A, A-, B+, B, B-, C+, C, C-, D+, D, D-, E, S and U. An E is used to indicate a failure, and no grade higher than an A will be recorded. If your course has mandatory S/U grading or a student opted for S/U grading, the final grade options will be S or U only. A grade of S is equivalent to a C- or higher. Additional information may be found in the Faculty Code, available on the provost/dean of the faculty website.  

Grades of D, E or U

Instructors are required to submit explanations of grades of D+/-, E or U for all students. When recording your grades via Workday, the Grade Note field will appear next to the Final Grade field grade when required. This information will be shared with the class deans’ office.  

Instructors may extend the deadline for final papers or projects to no later than the end of the examination period. If a student fails to submit their work by the due date set by the instructor and has not been granted an extension, a failing grade should be recorded for the missing work and a course grade submitted on that basis. Incomplete grades are not acceptable. A student who requests an extension beyond this date should be sent to their class dean. Only a class dean may authorize an extension beyond the end of the final examination period (Thursday, December 21, 3:00pm).

You will be notified by the class dean of any student who has been granted permission to take a make-up examination. If a student fails to take an examination by the date set by the class dean, and you have received no confirmation of an extension from the class dean, you should enter a failing grade for the examination and calculate a course grade on that basis. 

Please see the Grade Changes and Edits section below for information on submitting a final grade for a student who received an extension. 

Once you submit your grades, a faded checkbox will appear in the In Progress column on the course section roster, and you will not be able to modify grades. If you need to revise submitted grades during the grading period, please contact registrar@smith.edu; we can return the roster to you. (Note: Response time will be delayed over the winter break.) In Progress grades will not be posted (i.e., made available to students) before the afternoon of January 5.  

Once grades (excluding extensions) have been posted by the registrar’s office, they may only be changed with approval of the Dean of the College or Academic Board. Grade changes may be requested directly through Workday. Detailed instructions for changing a final grade via Workday are available in Workday Help by searching Change Final Grade. This policy also applies to Five College students taking Smith courses.

To submit a final grade for a student who has received an extension (X), please follow the instructions for Change Final Grade (Including Extensions). 

If you do not submit a final grade for a student who appears on your class list, the registrar’s office will record the blank grade as missing (M), unless the student’s class dean has authorized an official extension. Missing grades are calculated as failures when determining a student's grade point average. If not resolved by the end of the following semester, that grade will be converted to a failing grade on the student’s transcript. 

If a student’s name appears on your list, but they never attended the class or stopped attending, please report a failing grade (E) for that student. Once the student resolves any registration problems, they may petition the Academic Board to request that the failing grade be removed from their record.