Student leaders have garnered more than 1,800 petition signatures urging the University Senate to reconsider implementing a new plus-and-minus GPA system, but senate officials said it’s unlikely the body will overturn the decision.

Although several student senators and the Student Government Association voiced concerns about the policy change, the senate ultimately passed the legislation Wednesday. Some student leaders argued administrators did not give students enough notice or seek adequate input before making such a sweeping change, but senators said the policy change is now in the hands of university President Wallace Loh.

“We did not have a clear barometer of what [undergraduates’] wants were,” said undergraduate senator Aaron Fagan, who formed the Facebook group “University of Maryland Undergrads Against GPA Reform.”

“We’re just saying, ‘Slow down, and let’s make sure we hear from everyone before we go through with this,'” Fagan said.

Undergraduate senator Zachary Cohen said that at the next senate meeting, which is in December, he plans to make a motion for the senate to reconsider the body’s vote. If signed, it would begin next fall and affect both incoming freshmen and students still attending the university. The current system awards students the same number of points for different variations of the same letter grade. Under the new policy, 0.3 more points will be allotted for a plus grade and 0.3 less points for a minus grade, with the exception of an A+, which will still receive 4 points.

Because Loh has not yet signed the policy — meaning it is not yet official — SGA President Kaiyi Xie plans to meet with Loh to discuss the issue.

“I would rather that the actions came from the senate because that’s where the voice and the shared governance is, but if not then [the SGA] will try to cover it with Dr. Loh,” Cohen said.

Cohen posted the petition “University of Maryland Senate: Reconsider the Implementation of the Plus/Minus Grading System” on www.change.org Thursday afternoon. It asks the senate to reconsider the vote on the basis that students were not given enough chance to provide input..

However, Senate Chair-elect Martha Smith said the policy was passed in 2005, but administrators held off implementing the new system because they were in the midst of completely overhauling the core curriculum. The senate announced in the spring that this policy would be up for review and change was advertised on the body’s website. Smith said many students she spoke to were well aware of the potential change, and supportive.

While the senate is not required to take petitions into account, Smith said she would be open to reading its text.

“We always want to keep the avenues of communication open,” Smith said. “I’m just curious how familiar they are with the proposal.”

Nonetheless, some student leaders said other important university issues such as the new Facilities Master Plan and the Purple Line were better publicized through email listservs.

“I don’t know if it’s the administration’s fault for not advertising it or the students’ fault for not paying attention, but I feel like a lot of people were taken by surprise and felt like they were too uninformed,” said sophomore psychology major Julie Thompson, who signed the petition.

However, Smith and Senate Chair Eric Kasischke said the SGA did not inform the senate body it voted to condemn the policy’s implementation at its Nov. 7 meeting until the senate meeting’s vote two days later.

“If they never send any of their resolutions, how is the senate supposed to know this?” Kasischke said. “We want to improve communication with the SGA … but it’s a two-way street.”

villanueva@umdbk.com