Students will soon face a grading system that calculates grade point averages based on plus and minus grades, after the University Senate voted to implement such a system — to the outrage of many students — at its meeting yesterday.
After nearly 45 minutes of debate, the body passed the motion 49 to 26 with two abstentions. Several undergraduate senators and Student Government Association President Kaiyi Xie adamantly spoke against the bill. The SGA voted overwhelmingly against the bill at a special session held Monday and at its meeting last night, but faculty senators said they supported the new policy because it was in line with the grading systems of this university’s peer institutions.
The legislation will go into effect next fall and affect both incoming freshmen and students still attending the university. The current GPA scale gives students the same number of points for each variation of a letter grade, not taking pluses or minuses into consideration. Under the new system, students will be awarded an additional .3 points for a plus and .3 points fewer for a minus — although an A+ will only be worth a flat 4 points. Officials said because most graduate schools already recalculate GPAs based on this system, the policy change will help better prepare students for post-undergraduate life.
“We ought to look at [the policy] for the rewarding it gives — for faculty to recognize the achievement of their students,” Provost Ann Wylie said at the meeting. “This new grading system will change behavior … because people have known for a long time that the B- is the same as the B, so why bother to do A, B and C if it’s all the same?”
But some students at yesterday’s meeting said it would negatively impact their GPAs and hinder their prospects in the job market.
“If you ask any recruiter how they decide who to pick for jobs, the first filter is GPA,” undergraduate senator Rachel Ellis said. “Most students are going to be negatively impacted in the job market with this system. … I see more negative effects than positive effects with this implementation.”
Many faculty senators, however, said adopting this system was long overdue. The body initially passed the legislation in 2005, but because the university was undergoing a number of academic changes — including completely overhauling its general education program — the provost’s office delayed implementation.
“There was a great failure of will at the university [in 2005],” Undergraduate Studies Dean Donna Hamilton said. “Many of us had lamented what we hadn’t done. It is very important that the university benchmark and align with its peers, that we act and don’t fall behind.”
Xie, who vetoed a bill the SGA passed last week supporting such a policy, said the body should have further discussed the issue. He said even though the legislation has been contested for several years, current students are not well informed about the issue.
“I think [students] will respond quite negatively because there’s been no discussion about this,” Xie said in an interview after the meeting. “I know [senators] made the point that it’s been years since this was first introduced, but students are only here for four years and that doesn’t mean it doesn’t deserve more input now.”
abutaleb@umdbk.com
