General Policy

In general the students who directly benefit from the extra stuff should pay for it when possible.  For instance students are expected to pay admission to any outings and buy their own expendable supplies. We do have shared tools, facilities items for check out that are too expensive for students but these are not “expendable” need to be shared or returned. The potential cost of the class should be stated in the syllabus.

Faculty members can appeal to the ITP administration if:

1. the purchases will benefit each student in the department,
2. there are large bulk discounts on low cost items,
3. there are logistical difficulties with individual purchases.  

Please note – We buy supplies for the Physical Computing foundation classes because all three of those criteria are met.  For elective classes the first criteria is not as easily met.

Stocking for Physical Computing

Students in Intro to Physical Computing and IMA Creative Computing will receive the following parts in class from their instructors in the first class:

• Arduino Nano 33 IoT
• Breadboard
• Jumper wire kit

The ITP shop stocks a number of electronics components, including potentiometers, pushbuttons, phototransistors, resistors, capacitors, voltage regulators. These are available for students to take as needed. Please take only what you need for a given class exercise, as stock re-supply is not fast, and we want to make sure everyone has the parts they need. Please inform shop staff if a given part is out of stock.  It is possible to do all of the lab exercises in the intro classes with parts we have in shop stock, or in checkout.

Beyond this, students are expected to supply electronics parts for their projects.  It’s not possible to anticipate every possible component that every project might need. However, we try to stock items to help you try things before you buy. Always consult with your instructors, shop staff, and research residents on how to choose the most appropriate and economical parts for your projects.

The shop also has parts available for check-out with an NYU ID, just like the equipment room. These include microcontrollers, advanced sensors, and items which may be specific to various advanced classes. These must be returned after use, just like equipment room stock.

There is a limited stock of components faculty and staff discretionary use. These are meant for loan to students so that you can try out a given component. If you’re considering a part for your project, talk to your instructor or a resident researcher in advance. They can advise whether it’s the right part for the job, and if there’s one available for loan on the floor, they can procure it. These should be returned to whomever loaned them to you when done.

Please watch the film Accommodation. 

The Moses Center for Student Accessibility (CSA) determines qualified disability status and assists students in obtaining appropriate accommodations and services. CSD operates according to an “Independent Living Philosophy”, and strives in its policies and practices to empower each student to become as independent as possible. Our services are designed to encourage independence, backed by a strong system of supports.

726 Broadway, 2nd Floor
New York, NY 10003
Phone: 212-998-4980
Fax: 212-995-4114
e-mail: mosescsd@nyu.edu

Useful Highlights For Faculty

Disability Higher Education functions under a “self identification” concept. It is the responsibility of the disabled student to request reasonable accommodations and to manage the use of their accommodations.

Reasonable Accommodations are provided free of charge for students who are eligible to attend, enroll or benefit from the University’s programs, services, and activities.

Accommodations are provided on an individual basis dependent on the need for services, request for reasonable accommodations, documentation of disability and program requirements

Common Examples of Reasonable Accommodations

• Extended or double time on in-class exams and assignments
• A smaller proctored testing environment
• Supplemental class notes
• Tape recording lectures
• Use of a computer for exams or in-class note-taking
• Accessibility
• Sign language interpreters or other communication services
• Housing
• Foreign Language Substitutions ( are courses essential to the degree or program)

Examples of Accommodations that are Not Reasonable

• Extensions on deadlines for assignments/papers*
• Tutoring
• Exams in an alternate form (oral instead of essay or multiple choice)
• Course Exemptions
• Extra course absences (attendance policy is essential to the degree, mandatory for all students, discretion of faculty)*

* although Moses no longer offers these accommodations, students who have received them in the past have been grandfathered in. The language of each accommodation has changed to offer the faculty more structure.

Tips to Faculty

Include a statement regarding accommodations in your syllabi. This message should simply state, “If you are a student with a disability and feel you need accommodations, you must register with the Moses Center for Students with Disabilities. They are located at 726 Broadway, 2nd fl. and can be reached at 212-998-4980 or mosescsd@nyu.edu.”

If a student tells you they have a disability, they may not feel comfortable disclosing what the disability is. Do not ask. Whatever the discussion, listen and then refer the student to CSD.

Any information the student tells you must remain confidential. Conduct all disability-related meetings in a private location.

Do not accept disability documentation. This information is confidential and should be on record only in the CSD office.

If you choose to provide testing accommodations for students with disabilities who provide you with an official CSD accommodation letter, collaborate with CSD. We can offer helpful hints for providing effective accommodations.

If a student does not provide you with an accommodation letter from CSD but they request an accommodation such as extended time, check with us to make sure the student is in fact entitled to the accommodation. Not all students with disabilities are registered with the office.

If a student fails an exam because he/she chose to take it without their accommodations, you are under no obligation to offer them a make up or another assignment to supplement the grade. Accommodations are not retroactive.

Contact the student’s disability specialist if you are uncertain what is appropriate.

From the University Calendar Policy on Religious Holidays:

1. Students who anticipate being absent because of any religious observance should, whenever possible, notify faculty in advance of such anticipated absence.
2. Whenever feasible, examinations and assignment deadlines should not be scheduled on religious holidays. Any student absent from class because of his/her religious beliefs shall not be penalized for any class, examination, or assignment deadline missed on that day or days.
3. If examinations or assignment deadlines are scheduled, any student who is unable to attend class because of religious beliefs shall be permitted the opportunity to make up any examination or to extend any assignment deadline missed on that day or days. No fees of any kind shall be charged by the University for making available to the student an opportunity to make up examinations or to extend assignment deadlines.
4. No adverse or prejudicial effects shall result to any student who avails him/ herself of the provisions of the resolution.

A violation of these policies and principles shall permit any aggrieved student to bring a grievance, provided under the University Grievance Procedure.

At ITP / IMA / NYU, regular class attendance is an important component of academic success. For this reason, we ask for all instructors and students in our department to please abide by the following class attendance guidelines for each program:

Guidance from NYU Senior Leadership on Student Absences Due to Illness effective 9/1/23:

1. For reasons of medical efficacy and equity, we ask that faculty please take students’ reports of illness at face value and excuse short-term absences without requiring a doctor’s note. Our hope is to avoid having students spend effort, time, and (in some cases) money obtaining documentation associated with a doctor’s visit that may be not clinically necessary nor facilitate their recovery. (For this reason, the NYU Student Health Center does not routinely issue doctor’s notes.)

2. It is reasonable to expect students to notify you if they will not be participating in classes due to illness, but you should not ask students to divulge their private health-related information. Starting in Fall 2023, the Office of the Associate Vice President and Dean of Students will remind students each semester that they must notify their instructors in the event of an illness-related absence from class. Unexplained absences can be considered “unexcused” and handled in accordance with your class attendance policy.

3. Up to one calendar week’s absence from class due to illness should be excused. Unless related to chronic conditions, short-term absences typically do not involve formal accommodations via the Moses Center for Student Accessibility. You should direct a student experiencing a short-term illness towards any alternative forms of class participation or engagement that you have identified, e.g., reviewing notes or slides posted on NYU Brightspace, getting notes from other students, viewing class recordings (if available), or attending virtual office hours. Please keep in mind, however, that some recovery period may be necessary before the student is able to engage fully with these kinds of course resources.

4. When a student needs to miss more than one week of class, or has had repeated short-term absences, you should raise an “Excessive Absences” flag in NYU Connect. When you raise this flag, you will have the opportunity to provide comments that will support meaningful student outreach. These comments will not be shared with the student, just with those individuals in the student’s home school who can support them. (Faculty teaching Stern graduate courses should contact the academic advising team directly.) The goal of this action is to ensure that there is a coordinated effort to enable the student’s academic progress in all of their courses. We also remind you that, if you become aware of a mental-health issue, you should call the Wellness Exchange at 212-443-9999 or email them at wellness.exchange@nyu.edu. You can also raise a flag in NYU Connect, but this will be received by the student’s advisor first. If there is a known time sensitivity, please alert the mental health professionals directly.

ITP’s Attendance Policy:

After the first two weeks of the add/drop period, effective in week three onward, students are permitted the following number of unexcused absences:

• For 14-week, and 12-week, full-term courses, up to two unexcused absences are permitted.
• For 7-week, and 6-week, half-term courses, up to one unexcused absence is permitted.
• For shorter term courses, (1.0-unit weekend courses, or courses meeting less than six times) no unexcused absences are permitted.

Exceeding these unexcused absence guidelines is grounds for automatic failure.

Course instructors are permitted to grant additional “excused” absences, at their discretion, provided the student has given advance notice, and is willing to make the necessary arrangements to get caught up on any missed materials and/or assignments.

IMA’s Attendance Policy:

At most two unexcused absences while you are enrolled in the course will be tolerated without effect to your grade.  Any more than two unexcused absences will result in a lowering of your final grade by one whole grade for each unexcused absence.  For example, three unexcused absences will result in your highest possible grade being a B instead of an A. Four unexcused absences will result in your highest possible grade being a C and so on.  Six unexcused absences will result in an automatic F for the course. Two late arrivals (more than 10 minutes late) will count for one absence.  

Any classes you miss due to not being enrolled during the drop/add period are not counted as absences. If you are on the waitlist for a class you should attend during this period or risk being dropped from the waitlist.

Adjustments to the above policy are made by individual faculty members based on the nature of the class, the meeting pattern, and length of the class.  The final policy for each class may be found on the syllabus for that class.

FYI – this policy also lives on the general student-facing Help site here.

How to Submit Grades

For information on how to add final and midterm grades:
https://www.nyu.edu/students/student-information-and-resources/registration-records-and-graduation/for-faculty-and-staff/faculty-grading.html

Grading and Academic Probation

This policy is also listed on the ITP Help site for all students to view – see: Grading and Academic Probation.

Grading Bases for Our Programs

• For (ITPG-GT) ITP graduate courses, students receive pass / fail grades.

• For (IMNY-UT) IMA NY undergraduate courses, students receive letter grades (except for Code! / Code! 2).

• For (IMALR-GT) IMA Low Res. graduate courses, students receive pass / fail grades.

Midterm Grades

Instructors teaching undergraduate courses will complete Midterm Progress reports using NYU Connect. These reports will let students know if their progress is strong, satisfactory, or of concern, replacing the current process of uploading a midterm grade to Albert for undergraduate courses.

ITP Policy On Grading and Academic Probation

ITP students are expected to work to a high level of accomplishment — and are expected to earn a grade of PASS in all ITP courses. Specific grading criteria are outlined in the syllabus for each ITP course — common requirements are attendance at all class meetings, no unexcused absences, arriving for class on time and fully prepared, regular participation in class discussion and critiques, delivering assignments by the assigned date. We recognize that ITP majors are often engaging complex, technical material for the first time — therefore we value the effort that a student puts into their course work. We are not always looking for mastery of the material but we do require that a student show a deep understanding of the material — just making the effort and attending the class meetings may, in and of itself, not result in a passing grade. This will be determined by each individual ITP instructor in his/her course.

ITP students who receive a FAILING grade in one class may be placed on Academic Probation. This may have implications on such things as scholarship aid. Furthermore, students whose records indicate that they are not making normal progress toward their degrees (i.e., are completing less than 32 points during the academic year) may be placed on probation.

Two failing grades may result in dismissal from the program.

Student records are reviewed following the fall and spring semesters. Students placed on probation will be informed of their probationary status by email. Students placed on probation will have their records reviewed the following semester. Students whose records fail to meet the school minimum standards or departmental requirements for good standing are subject to dismissal.

Statement from Former ITP Chair Dan O’Sullivan on the Transition to Pass/Fail in 2008

The ITP faculty, after a great deal of thought, decided to move ITP to a Pass/Fail grading system beginning in the Summer 2008 semester.

This policy is also listed on the ITP Help Site, see: ITP Pass/Fail policy.

Who will this effect? 

This effects all ITP students who began the program in or after the Summer of 2008.

Why did you have to change it? 

In the non-competitive environment of ITP, we found that the actual variation in grading was not much more than is more clearly expressed in pass/fail. For the collaborative, project-based work at ITP, it is difficult to very precisely quantify those small variations and with such a diverse faculty we found it difficult to maintain consistency across classes. A-F system is often used to “grading on a curve” but at ITP we grade against your individual progress. We found that the letter grading was misleading and distracting without adding much value. For the students that did find motivation and affirmation in grades, we want them to find better sources of it. This decision was made after a great deal of thought among the full-time and adjunct faculty, many ITP alumni among them.

How will I be rewarded for doing extra work? 

The intrinsic value of the work should motivate you. We found that our best students seemed unconcerned with grades. As in the world you get fired or you don’t, but people find many ways of distinguishing themselves beyond staying employed. Even for class assignments, our students quite often find the feedback and appreciation of audiences and users a better incentive than a single professor’s opinion. We will also encourage more ways to exchange feedback in a narrative form from both professors and peers (eg. blogs).

How will my transcript look? 

We seldom have any request for employers to look at your grades. For further study other institutions are unimpressed with straight A’s from a graduate school (unlike undergrad grades) and used to Pass/Fail. Your portfolio and recommendations are what they look at.

What is the threshold for failing? 

Earning a C grade in the previous system would be a failure in the new system. In the prior system we said that you had to maintain a B average to stay in the program. This system is a bit more strict in that you have to get a B in the class to get credit for it.

Okay so then what got me a C in the old system? 

Because we encourage you to risk failure by stretching to make bridges outside your known interests and aptitudes we cannot, in general, hold you to any absolute level of achievement in any area. Instead, you are graded on effort and progress in the quality of your work. There are some objective measures of your effort for instance missing more than two classes or being chronically late, missing two interim assignments or presentations or one large assignment like the final project or a complete lack of in-class participation might be clear indicators of a failure in the effort. Classes are structured differently so professors will provide a syllabus indicating the requirements and their relative importance. Ultimately the progress in the quality of your efforts is usually a subjective judgment by the professor but students will be given notice when the quality of their work is marginal or failing.

What does this mean for my scholarship? 

A pass equates to a B average or better which is required for some scholarships. You will have to get a pass in all your classes for scholarships that are contingent on maintaining grades.

What happens if I fail a class?

Incompletes and extensions are only granted in cases of extreme eternal problems such as serious illness or family emergencies. When you fail a class you do not get credit for it and forfeit the tuition. If it is a required class you will need to repeat it. You will be placed on academic probation after failing one class. You will be asked to leave the program after two fails.

Incompletes

This policy is also listed on the ITP Help site, see: Policy on Incompletes.

Tisch School of the Arts Policy on Grades of Incomplete

Students are expected to complete all coursework by the end of each semester. If, for compelling reasons, such as illness or a family emergency, a student is unable to complete coursework by the end of the semester, he or she may request a grade of Incomplete. To do so, the student must fill out an Incomplete Request Form, which can be obtained in his or her department’s office, the Office of Student Affairs, or online at http://students.tisch.nyu.edu/, and bring it to the instructor for his or her approval before the last day of classes. The awarding of a grade of Incomplete is at the discretion of the instructor and is not guaranteed.

If the instructor agrees that a grade of Incomplete is warranted, he or she will specify on the Incomplete Request Form the deadline by which outstanding work must be completed, not to exceed the end of the semester following the course, as well as the final grade the student will receive if the outstanding work is not completed by the deadline. The Incomplete Request Form will be registered with the department sponsoring the course and a copy will be provided to the Office of Student Affairs. If the incomplete work is not completed within the designated period, the grade will lapse to the final grade indicated by the instructor. Final grades cannot be changed except in cases of faculty or administrative error.

If a student has good reason for not being able to complete the outstanding work in the specified period, he or she may apply for an extension by the instructor. In order to receive an extension, the student must fill out an Extension on Completion of Work Outstanding form, available in the department, the Office of Student Affairs, or online at http://students.tisch.nyu.edu/, and submit the form to the instructor, who will then decide whether or not to grant the extension. Requests for further extensions must receive the approval of the associate dean for student affairs.

Please remember that it is the student’s responsibility to request the grade of Incomplete and that instructors are not obliged to grant an Incomplete. Note that outstanding grades of Incomplete do not count as earned credit hours and therefore may affect registration time and/or eligibility for financial aid. Students with more than one grade of Incomplete in a semester may be placed on academic probation.

This policy is listed on the official Tisch website, see: Tisch Academic Integrity Policy.

Academic Integrity

The core of the educational experience at the Tisch School of the Arts is the creation of original academic and artistic work by students for the critical review of faculty members.  It is therefore of the utmost importance that students at all times provide their instructors with an accurate sense of their current abilities and knowledge in order to receive appropriate constructive criticism and advice.  Any attempt to evade that essential, transparent transaction between instructor and student through plagiarism or cheating is educationally self-defeating and a grave violation of Tisch School of the Arts community standards.

Plagiarism

Plagiarism is presenting someone else’s original work as if it were your own.  More specifically, plagiarism is to present as your own:

• a sequence of words quoted without quotation marks
• a paraphrased passage from another writer’s work
• ideas, sound recordings, computer data, or images composed or created by someone else.

Students are expected to build their own work on that of other people, just as professional artists, scholars, and writers do.  Giving credit to the creator of the work you are incorporating into your own work is an act of integrity; plagiarism, on the other hand, is a form of fraud.  Proper acknowledgment and correct citation constitute the difference.

Cheating

Cheating is an attempt to deceive a faculty member into believing that your mastery of a subject or discipline is greater than it really is by a range of dishonest methods. Examples of cheating include but are not limited to:

• using notes, books, electronic media, or electronic communications in an exam without permission
• talking with fellow students or looking at another person’s work during an exam
• submitting substantially the same work in multiple courses without the explicit prior permission of the instructors
• submitting work previously created for another course without the instructor’s knowledge and approval
• fabricating a citation or using a false citation
• purchasing a paper or hiring someone else to write a paper for you
• having someone take an exam for you, or taking an exam for someone else
• allowing another student to present your work as his or her own
• altering or forging academic documents, including but not limited to admissions materials and medical excuses
• unauthorized collaboration on work intended to be done individually.

Investigation of Alleged Violations

If an instructor has reason to believe that a student has violated the Academic Integrity Policy, he or she should meet with the student as soon as reasonably possible to present the evidence of the alleged violation and hear the student’s response.  When necessary, the meeting can be conducted by telephone.  If the alleged violation is discovered after the term has ended, the faculty member should enter a grade of incomplete (“I”) until the matter is resolved.  Once an investigation is begun, the student may not withdraw from the course.

All confirmed violations of the Academic Integrity Policy must be reported in writing to the department chair and the associate dean for student affairs.  The written report should include details of the offense, the student’s response, the faculty member’s conclusions, and any penalties imposed (see below).

Penalties

Penalties for violations of the Academic Integrity Policy may range from being required to redo an assignment to dismissal from the School.  For example, if after meeting with the student the instructor concludes that a violation of the Academic Integrity Policy did occur, he or she may require the student to completely redo the assignment; assign a grade of F for the assignment, and factor the failing grade into the student’s final grade for the course; or assign a grade of F for the course, although this must be done in consultation with the department chair.

The associate dean for student affairs may initiate further disciplinary action against a student found in violation of the Academic Integrity Policy, depending on the severity of the violation and whether the student has had prior disciplinary violations.  Penalties may range from a formal warning to disciplinary probation to suspension or dismissal from the School.  (For further information about discipline at the Tisch School of the Arts, see the section entitled “Discipline” in the Tisch School of the Arts Policies & Procedures Handbook.)