Faculty & Staff Resources

All grades should be submitted online through Workday. Note that grades may not be submitted via the Workday mobile app (i.e., on your phone). 

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

2. Under the Teaching heading, select Assign Final Grades. (You may need to expand the menu by selecting More.)

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 (e.g., 2024 Fall Semester). 

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

6. From the Final Grade drop-down list, select the appropriate grade for the student. Please review the entire roster to ensure a grade has been entered for each eligible student. Class year now displays on the Workday final grade roster, so you can more easily identify seniors; graduate and Five College students generally have no class year indicated. 

7. When complete, click Submit, then check the Confirm checkbox and select OK. This step is required for your grades to be submitted to the registrar’s office! 

After submitting grades, you will receive a Workday alert and email indicating successful submission. Grades that are entered but not submitted properly may be processed administratively by the registrar’s office after the grade deadline.  

Detailed instructions for submitting grades are available on the Workday Help site. 

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 (Friday, May 9, 3 p.m.). Note that extensions are limited to final assignments/projects only.

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 me (gherringer@smith.edu); I can return the roster to you. (Response time will be delayed over the winter break, however.) In Progress grades will not be posted (i.e., made available to students) before the afternoon of January 6.

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 Administrative 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 (E) on the student’s transcript. (Missing grades for graduating seniors must be resolved prior to Commencement.)

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 can petition the Academic Board to have the failing grade removed from their record.