Midterm grades no more

When checking their midterm grades, students were probably surprised to discover that the usual A, B, C, D or F had been replaced by an S or U. This change is part of a new midterm grading policy debuted this semester by the GC&SU Retention Task Force.

Under the new policy, the S stands for satisfactory and represents an A, B or C in the class, while the U stands for unsatisfactory and represents a D or F.

The change was implemented to increase faculty midterm grade submissions, decrease the withdrawal rate at midterm, give students an idea of their grades and because the old policy was misleading.

The former policy gave students a false sense of security for receiving an A, or a sense of defeat for receiving a C or D, said Dr. Beth Rushing, the dean of the Liberal Arts and Sciences Department and a member of the task force.

“The midterm grade was never meant to be definite,” Rushing said. “Students can always talk to their teachers.”

The Retention Task Force, an organization designed to increase the number of students who enroll and graduate from GC&SU, hopes the new policy will spark conversation between students and professors, alert parents of any problems, encourage students to get tutors and increase the number of students graduating within four years.

Some students have reacted negatively to the change.

“(The new policy) is misleading. It makes it hard to tell where you stand in the class,” said SGA Senator Dustin Jones, a junior mass communications major.

Junior Ashley Bohanon, a mass communications major, agrees.

“You could be half a point from failing and not know,” said Bohanon.

The SGA Academic Affairs Committee is actively tackling this issue after receiving student complaints about the new policy.

“We are planning to get (the new midterm grade policy) changed by next semester,” said senior Ashley McGuire, a member of the SGA academic affairs committee. “We may need some support. So, keep your eyes open.”

Dr. Robin Harris, associate professor of sociology, also agrees with students complaints concerning the change.

“I think it conveys the wrong image by calling a C satisfactory. And due to HOPE Scholarship regulations, students need more feedback,” Harris said.

The new policy was created to make it easier on teachers, but Government and Sociology Professor Kathleen Martin does not think that goal was accomplished.

“If a faculty member has to calculate grades in order to determine whether a student receives an S or U, then they may as well calculate an A, B,C, D, or F,” Martin said.

But Martin also sees some positive aspects to the change.

Martin teaches roughly 150 students, mainly freshmen, and she said that out of all her students, she hasn’t heard anyone complain about the new policy. They’ve asked questions, but they haven’t complained.

“(The new policy) may lead to more student-teacher interaction,” Martin said. “If a student is concerned about their grade, then they need to talk to their professor.”

Posted by Colonnade Archives on Oct 21 2005. Filed under News. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0. You can leave a response or trackback to this entry