Unofficial Withdrawal

As per CUNY, an Unofficial Withdraw (WU) is assigned to students who attended a minimum of one class.  It is important to understand the definition of a WU and the difference between this grade and an F grade before assigning it to a student.  Although a WU counts as an F in the student’s academic record, the WU grade will negatively impact a student’s financial aid award.  We encourage faculty to include the class grading breakdown in their syllabus to further inform the student about how grades are decided.  The conditions for assigning the WU grade include: 

A student’s enrollment has been verified by the course instructor, and

The student has severed all ties with the course at any time before the final exam week and, consequently, has failed to complete enough course work – as specified in the course syllabus – to earn a letter grade*, and

The student has not officially withdrawn from the course by completing the process for a W grade, or made arrangements to receive an INC.

*A WU grade should never be given in place of an F grade.  The F grade is an earned grade based on poor performance and the student not meeting the learning objectives/outcomes of the course as defined in the syllabus.