Students puts human face on grading scaleBy Curtis Creekmore

What do food service, climate control and drainage issues have in common? If you guessed, “Student complaints that the administration just won’t fix,” you’re absolutely correct. But what’s missing from this list?

Obviously, with as much print and talk as it gets on this campus, the plus/minus grading scale is one of the biggest controversies around.

“Certainly a few people have brought their concerns to me, but I don’t have a sense if it is many concerned students or just a select few,” Provost Shirley Willihnganz said last fall.

Since the grading scale was adopted in 2002, students have moaned and groaned about how unfair they feel it is. Unless you’re under a rock, or possibly behind a desk, all day, you probably can’t help but hear the uproar it caused and is still causing.

Provost Willihnganz has a tough job, and I am in no way saying she doesn’t do it. The grading scale isn’t even something she can control; she can only advise the individual colleges what to do. Nevertheless, there is obvious need for restructure.

Most students have a personal story about the plus/minus grading scale. My freshman year at the university, I was given the Provost’s Hallmark Award, a full scholarship that requires recipients to maintain a 3.0 GPA.

I had decided upon a major in Biology, one in which I could also fulfill pre-medical requirements. As pre-med students already know, these professors are out for blood: they all assure you the first day of class that you don’t deserve to be there, and that it is their duty to fail you. It obviously worked as my first semester GPA was a 2.75. I was shocked, coming out of high school with a 3.96.

I knew that I would have to improve a lot in my second semester, so I worked extra hard and took some classes I knew I would do well in. I would need at least a 3.25 to keep my scholarship. Toward the end of the semester, I knew I could count on As in my French and English classes to bring up my grades in biology and chemistry. All my grades were posted except for English, and I had a 3.1.

The final grade was finally posted: A-, giving me a 3.238 for the semester, and a 2.996 for the year. I lost my scholarship because of one, single minus. I asked my teacher if there was anything I could do to make up points and change it to an A, but she said no.

For anyone who cares, I won an appeal to keep the scholarship, and quickly changed my major. Had the plus/minus grading system not been in use, I wouldn’t have had that problem.

Not being one to point out problems without offering possible solutions, I have a suggestion for modifications to the system. A mathematics professor I had last year used a “plus only” grading system: A, B+, B, C+, C, and so on. That way, students were not penalized for grades that weren’t considered “up to par,” but were recognized for exemplary grades that stand out more than the average letter grade. This system seemed to work very well in the class, not only helping the students’ GPAs but also boosting their morale. Students who don’t have to deal with minuses may not be as pressured to garner the extra points to avoid a minus grade, easing the stress and resulting in better scores.

This issue is obviously not an easy one to fix, but it is also one that needs fixing. For far too long students have had to complain without change. It is time that something is actually done about it. For anyone out there who has doubts, here’s one more concerned student.