University Provost Bill Destler told the SGA last night that officials are considering a proposal that would add a second GPA calculation to official transcripts.

One GPA would show plus-minus grading factored in, and the second would show the GPA as it is calculated now, referred to as an “unweighted” calculation. Officials said they hope the proposal could serve as a short-term solution to complaints that some graduate schools are re-calculating transcript grades to reflect weighted averages.

The university would not change its policy of using unweighted calculations as students’ official GPAs.

Destler said the proposal came out of discussions with the provost’s advisory committee, which aimed to address two student concerns: that unweighted averages were harming their ability to get accepted at graduate institutions, and that students are often unaware of their weighted GPA and can be caught off-guard when graduate schools re-calculate.

Although the University Senate approved plus-minus grading in December for this school year, Destler temporarily froze action on the change in May after a study showed the plus-minus system would decrease student graduation by 1 to 2 percent, as seniors with borderline grades would be barred from graduating with less than a 2.0 GPA.

Such a decrease would be hard to swallow because the university only recently met its targeted goal of 80 percent student graduation in six years, Destler said during the meeting.

“I’m very reluctant to go forward unless we have a pretty good idea its not having a measurable impact on student graduation rates,” Destler said. In an interview after the announcement, he said: “I’m hoping to have something by the end of this fall so we can begin looking at implementing it in the Spring,”

Although instructors may assign a plus or minus to a grade, only the letter grade itself is now factored into a calculation. For example: a grade of C-, C or C+, are all worth 2.0 when the GPA is calculated. Under a bill approved by the Senate, a plus or minus could add or take away from a GPA by a margin of .3. This would make a C- grade worth only 1.7, a number that could seriously affect overall GPAs, the recent study showed.

Reactions among Student Government Association members were mixed.

“I think its the best way to go about it right now” said Corey Peterson, Greek legislator in SGA. Peterson added that while she sympathized with the students who might be hurt by the switch to a weighted plus-minus system she said it is important for the university to move forward with the system. “If other universities are doing it and their students are handling it we should be on par.”

Engineering legislator Matt Verghese disagreed and said that a short term solution does not serve the student body.

“This is not a good middle-ground step,” Verghese, a junior, said. “This would most likely confuse grad schools and businesses that look at our grades.”

Whatever final decision in plus-minus grading, no current students’ GPAs would be affected. Any changes would be applied to the next year’s freshman class.

Contact reporter Alan J. McCombs at mccombsdbk@gmail.com