FOR FACULTY

Please see the Registrar’s information for faculty on MassArt Connect. 

Rosters are available upon login to Self-Service with one’s NetID and password. Instructions for viewing course rosters.

Attendance is first marked after the first class meeting concludes. Please log on to Self-Service and mark any registered students who did not attend. 

If the course cap has not been reached, you may add additional students until the cap is met. In rare cases, faculty may want to allow higher numbers of students to enroll. Send an email to the student and to the Registrar, Jonathan Rand, at jrand@massart.edu to allow additional students to enroll during add/drop.

Log into Self-Service, select the course section you are teaching, and click on the “i” information button for “availability” to see the number of course seats available, the course capacity, and number of waitlisted students (available/capacity/waitlist). Note that students are not automatically moved from the waitlist to enrolled seats, so that the number of “available seats” is not automatically updated.

After Add/Drop has ended (two full weeks of class) please provide your attendance on Self-Service again. This prevents the College from billing a student who is no longer enrolled, and certifies financial aid eligibility.

Syllabus

All faculty must submit a copy of the syllabus for every course they teach. You will be prompted to submit your syllabi with an online form at the start of each semester. Faculty should email their course syllabus to gradprogram@massart.edu so that it may be placed in their faculty file.

All syllabi must include the Graduate Syllabus Policy Attachment described at the end of this document. The attachment informs students of grading policies, absence policies and information about academic accommodations. Faculty may also establish other specific guidelines for their course, and include them on the syllabus. For example, many faculty establish a tardiness policy, or a policy that cellphone usage is not allowed during class time. Some faculty include information about taking breaks during class, water but no food allowed during class time, etc. Guidelines for online classes should also be communicated clearly (cameras on/off, definition of attendance, etc.). Print the attachment from this document or request a PDF from the Graduate Team at gradprogram@massart.edu.

Office Hours

All faculty must set regular office hours and include these in their course syllabus. Each course should include 1 office hour per class meeting. Office hours may be done remotely. If an on-campus room is needed for a meeting with a student, please contact the graduate program at gradprogram@massart.edu in advance to arrange for space. If you will not be available during your office hours, please notify students of alternate hours you’re available.

Written Student Evaluation 

Students may request written course evaluations for any course taken at Massachusetts College of Art and Design. The student must provide the faculty member with the Student Evaluation form before the end of the Add/Drop period of the semester in which the class is taken. The faculty member submits the Student Evaluation form to the Registrar’s Office. The Student Evaluation is intended to provide a description of the student’s achievement in the course. It addresses the student’s attendance, class participation, motivation, the work produced, and the student’s progress and technical expertise in the subject area. Letter grade equivalents are not given for pass/no credit courses.

• Human Resources Policies and Procedures are on MassArt’s Knowledge Base, and linked on the Human Resources & Payroll MassArt Connect page.
  
• Graduate Academic Policies are available on this graduate student resources site.
• The Student Handbook and Community Standards, provide additional policies students must comply with.

Please speak with the Graduate Program Director or the Dean of Graduate Studies if you find a student is not performing well in your course. If a student shows signs of not being able to pass a course early in the semester, faculty may submit an academic warning to inform the student that they could potentially fail the course. There are two opportunities per term to assign this warning – for the fall, in October and November, and for the spring, in February and April. Academic Warnings are submitted online through Self-Service, and the dates for doing so are on the Academic Calendar. For issues arising in summer courses, please contact the Graduate Program Director, or the Dean of Graduate Studies, as soon as possible. As summer courses schedules vary, the College does not schedule summer academic warnings.

If you are going to be late or absent from class, email your students and email the grad team at gradprogram@massart.edu before the start of class. If we have staff on campus, and receive the message prior to the end of our work day, we will post a sign on the classroom door regarding faculty absences.

If you will be absent from class, consider alternative coursework for your students. It is recommended you have a contingency plan to keep students on track with their work, be it online, via email, or by conducting a make-up class. Keep in mind that students cannot be required to attend any make-up classes that fall outside the normal meeting time of the class, though optional classes outside of the normal meeting time can be offered.

When teaching in the winter months we may be subject to closings for inclement weather. If the College will be closed on a weekday, an email will be sent to your MassArt email address notifying you of the closure. It is recommended you sign up for MassArt’s RAVE alert system, which will also send you texts regarding shutdowns (sign up for Rave alerts). Any closings will also be announced along with other Boston-area schools on your local TV or radio stations. Remote courses are also canceled when the college is closed due to inclement weather.

Towards the end of the semester, students in your course will be asked to evaluate the course and you as their professor. Evaluations are conducted online in an application called Blue. This system is new to Graduate, Professional, and Continuing Education in spring 2025. We plan to open these course evaluations in time for the 2nd last class meeting, or the last class meeting, for credit courses, and faculty will be notified in advance.

We ask that faculty set aside 15 minutes of class time for students to complete their evaluation via their personal devise (computer, phone, tablet etc.). Faculty should step out of the classroom while the survey is being conducted. Please reinforce the importance of participation in the evaluation process with your students.

Please see this short guide on using Subject Management. Faculty will receive a link to Blue Subject Management via email. Subject Management provides access to a QR code and student evaluation links to share with students while doing the evaluation in class. Students may also find their evaluation link in their MassArt email. 

Credit courses offered by the Graduate and PCE, and MassArt undergraduate programs are evaluated on different forms.

• Grad and PCE credit course evaluations are specified in the MSCA DGCE bargaining agreement posted on the MSCA website. Please review this agreement for more information on student course evaluations.
• MassArt day courses are evaluated on a 10-question form agreed to by the State Colleges.

After the conclusion of the course, and after grades are submitted, faculty will have access to a summary report of the combined evaluation responses, via Blue Subject Management. Please download and keep a copy for your files.

Prior to grading your course, please review the grading policies in the Graduate Academic Policies. This includes information on the type of grades awarded, and the minimum passing course grades as they apply to students from each program. 

At the end of the semester, faculty enter grades by logging into Self-Service. Review the instructions for entering grades which are linked on the Registrar’s information for faculty page. Please assign grades by the appropriate deadline as indicated on MassArt’s Academic Calendar. If you have any questions about grading or incomplete grades, please contact the Registrar’s Office, registrar@massart.edu; and for questions about a student’s progress through the program, please contact the Program Director and/or Nadia Savage in the Graduate Program office, nsavage@massart.edu. See “Start of the Term Policies” for information on Written Student Evaluations which students may request at the start of the term.

Grading Information

Review the Registrar’s information for faculty on MassArt Connect.

Incomplete Course Grade

In rare cases, and due to extenuating circumstances, a student cannot finish coursework by the end of the term. Faculty may want to grant an Incomplete grade to a student as a temporary grade. 

• If this occurs in your class, please see the incomplete grade policy included in the Graduate Academic Policies.
• If it is the appropriate solution, the faculty and student complete an Incomplete Grade Contract together, indicating the deadline for completion, and the Registrar enters the grade after receiving the contract.
• Work should be completed within 4 weeks of the start of the following term. Faculty review work submitted and submit a Change of Grade form, or email the required information – Student ID, Course code + section, Old grade, and New grade – to the Registrar’s Office at registrar@massart.edu.

Change of Grade

Faculty may change any grade until the mid-semester following the course. In exceptional situations, faculty (or the Program Director or Dean of Graduate Studies in the absence of the faculty) may extend the period for completing requirements for an incomplete grade beyond this deadline.

Changes of grades, other than INC, are permitted after the deadline only with the signature of the faculty (or program director or dean, in absence of the faculty). To change a grade, faculty use the Change of Grade form, or email the required information – Student ID, Course code + section, Old grade, and New grade – to the Registrar’s Office at registrar@massart.edu. 

Grade Appeal Procedure

Faculty should be aware that on rare occasions students may appeal a course grade. This process must be initiated by the student within the first three weeks of the semester immediately following the semester in which the course was taken. The grade appeal policy is included in the Graduate Academic Policies