Ice Storm Closes Colby-Sawyer College Ahead of Schedule: Revised Final Exam Information for Current Students, Faculty and Staff

Power went out on campus around 11:30 p.m. on Thursday, Dec. 11, and was fully restored on Dec. 16, 2008. Staff offices re-opened on Wednesday, Dec. 17. The Windy Hill School reopened Thursday, Dec. 18.

FOR STUDENTS

Students and faculty are not expected to be on campus for the remainder of the calendar year.

Below is information about the completion of fall course work and final examinations.

For classes that were not held on Friday, Dec. 12:

Individual faculty will determine how to proceed with respect to the completion of fall course work and final examinations. Here are some of the possibilities you might expect:

• In cases where final exams or projects constitute a small part of the overall grade, faculty might decide to issue grades to students based upon the work they completed prior to the final assignment, effectively canceling the final examination and/or assignments.

• If faculty wish to ask students to turn in papers or projects that were due after Dec. 11, 2008, the following due dates will apply:

For any regular assignments due on Friday, Dec. 12, 2008, the new due date will be Monday, Jan. 12, 2009.

For any assignments or take-home exams due during the final exam period, the new due date will be Thursday, Jan. 15, 2009.

• If faculty wish to hold an in-class examination, you will be notified of the date, time and place for your rescheduled final examination. We hope to schedule all of these for Jan. 19, 2009, but please continue to check your Colby-Sawyer e-mail account and the Colby-Sawyer web site's home page for updates. We will then determine the due dates for final grades.

• If faculty have already made alternative arrangements with students for the completion of fall course work, please be aware that the college's technological resources only became available on Wednesday, Dec. 17, and some faculty, staff and students may still not have power at their residences.

Thanks for your hard work and understanding in this unprecedented situation. We look forward to seeing you in the spring semester. Please continue to consult the home page of the college web site for updates.

If you have questions about this very unusual situation, please contact Academic Dean Beth Crockford at bcrockford@colby-sawyer.edu

FOR FACULTY

Faculty are not expected to be on campus for the remainder of the calendar year.

Power went out on campus around 11:30 p.m. on Thursday, Dec. 11, and was fully restored on Dec. 17, 2008.

The faculty meeting scheduled for Dec. 18, 2008, has been cancelled and will be rescheduled for the first week of classes in January.

For course-related issues:

Faculty have asked for guidance as to options for the completion of student course work and grades. Here are some suggestions:

• If final exams or projects constitute a small part of the overall grade, feel free to issue grades to students based upon the work they completed prior to the final assignment. • If you wish to ask students to turn in papers or projects that were due after Dec. 11, 2008, the following dates will apply:

For any regular assignments due on Friday, Dec. 12, the new date will be Monday, Jan. 12, 2009.

For any assignments or take-home exams due during the final exam period, the new due date will be Thursday, Jan. 15, 2009.

Please use these dates as the standard due dates for student work, but also feel free to make individual arrangements with students who themselves have exceptional circumstances.

If you need an in-class examination, please be in touch with Registrar Carole Parsons, cparsons@colby-sawyer.edu by 3 p.m. on Friday, Dec. 18. We will try to schedule all final examinations for Monday, Jan. 19, 2009, but may need to schedule some examinations for Sunday, Jan. 18, if we have a sufficient number of requests.

Students who have scheduled exams during this period will be permitted to arrive on campus on Saturday, Jan. 17. b Once you have received a date, time and place for your rescheduled final examination, please e-mail your students through Blackboard or IQ Web to let them know. Please send a copy of your e-mail to Carole Parsons.

All grades for fall semester classes will be due in by 5 p.m. on Tuesday, Jan. 20. Classes will be cancelled on Tuesday, Jan. 20, to facilitate your work. This due date is critical because, in many cases, students' fall semester grades determine which courses they may register for during the spring semester.

However, it is likely that there will be some circumstances in which an individual student or a class might not be able to receive a grade by that date. In those cases, faculty should submit grades of “Incomplete.” Please be aware that – if you do that – students will have six weeks into the spring semester to complete their course work.

If faculty have already made alternative arrangements with students for the completion of fall course work, please be aware that the college's technological resources were not available to students until sometime after the power was restored on Dec. 17, and some of them may still lack power at their places of residence. Please be flexible.

Whatever your choice, please be in touch with your students as soon as possible to confirm your decisions with them, and please copy Carole Parsons on that e-mail as well.

Thanks for your hard work and understanding in this unprecedented situation. Please continue to consult the home page of the college's web site for updates.

FOR FACULTY AND STAFF

The college's payroll was completed for Dec. 12, 2008. Most checks were deposited directly, and checks were mailed out to those who do not have direct deposit on Saturday, Dec. 13, 2008.