University students are one step closer to facing a grading system that calculates grade point averages based on a plus-and-minus system after a University Senate subcommittee voted in favor of such a policy change yesterday.
Although the senate initially voted to approve this legislation in December 2005, the provost’s office delayed its implementation because the university was in the midst of completely overhauling its general education program. But after a student asked the legislation to be reviewed again a year ago, the senate’s Academic Procedures and Standards Committee revised the policy and approved it yesterday. The senate’s most powerful committee will vote on the legislation at its meeting later this month and the full body will vote on the policy next month.
Senators said implementing such a policy would help make this university more competitive with its peer institutions, since most colleges nationwide adjust GPAs based on plus-and-minus grades. The current GPA scale gives students the same number of points for each letter grade, regardless of whether it is a plus or minus.
“We felt [the change] was consistent with what most major universities are doing, and we did do a rather extensive review of how other universities have their GPAs calculated,” chair of the Academic Procedures and Standards Committee Robert Buchanan said. “This gets us more in line with what else is going on in the United States.”
While the initial legislation stipulated an A+ be awarded a 4.3, Provost Ann Wylie recommended an A+ be calculated as a 4.0, which is consistent with the grading systems of this university’s peer institutions. The subcommittee responsible for the legislation voted to approve Wylie’s recommendation at its meeting yesterday.
Although the legislation must still go through two more senate votes before it makes its way to the president’s desk, members of the subcommittee said they expect the full body to vote in favor of the legislation next month. If approved, the policy will be in place for the fall of 2012 and will affect all students still at the university.
The committee conducted studies which show that the new grading system will minimally affect students’ GPAs — the average undergraduate GPA would only be reduced by three one-hundredths of a GPA point, and the study also showed that there are no differences based on race or ethnicity. The main source of lowered GPAs results from an A- grade, which is calculated as a 3.7, rather than a 4.0, according to the legislation.
Student senators said because GPAs will be minimally affected, there are no drawbacks to implementing the policy.
“It’s a more fair system,” biology graduate student Brian Coyle said. “I think it will be good for students. All our peer institutions have had the same plus/minus system for a long time and we’re one of the few schools that haven’t had it.”
Because graduate schools, including medical schools and law schools, already recalculate each prospective student’s GPA based on plus/minus grades, members of the subcommittee said they were comfortable voting in favor of the legislation, Buchanan said.
Undergraduate student senator Alex Chafitz, who serves on the subcommittee, said the new policy will allow students to have a better idea of how their GPAs stack up for graduate school.
“We’re almost in a way lying to ourselves with our GPAs because they’re not an accurate representation of how graduate schools calculate it,” he said. “Students may be annoyed about it, but when you look at the issue, all of our peer institutions have it and we’re putting ourselves at a disadvantage by having this archaic system.”
The new grading system will also better reflect student achievement in a course, senators said.
“Virtually all leading universities use plus/minus grading,” Chelsea Benincasa said, the subcommittee’s senior coordinator. “The principal benefit is that it provides a more accurate representation of student achievement, so that’s an important factor we looked at. We are sort of unique in that we have not implemented this system already.”
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