New Letter Grades
Course instructors will have available to them two new letter grades starting this fall. This summer, the university Senate added A+ and FX to the existing catalog of letter grades.
The A+ grade is intended for those special students who 
show an extraordinary performance well beyond everybody else in the same class. It carries the same numerical value as a regular A grade, namely 4.0, therefore the extra "+" has no effect on the GPA. The use of the A+ is restricted according to class size, to ensure it stays as a true indicator of distinction. No A+ grades are available for class sizes less than 25, and only one may be awarded for class sizes up to 75 students.
Near the other end of the scale is the FX grade. Carrying a numerical value of 0.0 and indicating a "Fail" grade, FX is essentially equivalent to an F grade for most practical purposes. The new FX grade aims to make a distinction between students who perform poorly and those who do not hand in enough material to be evaluated. Students who fail because they missed some of the main evaluation activities (midterm exam, term paper, etc.) without a valid and accepted excuse will be given an FX grade. This grade may also be given to students with poor classroom attendance.
The idea is to distinguish between students who do their best by attending the course and completing all of the requirements but still fail the course (F grade) and those who simply drop out themselves by failing to take one or more exams or not turning in term papers (FX grade). It is at the discretion of the course instructor to decide which students get FX grades.