Senators
spread word of plus/minus ills
By
Amber Muranaka
Online Forty-Niner
Assistant City Editor
Sen. Shelena McClinton, College of Liberal Arts, and Sen.-at-Large Naomi Cruz
sent out an e-mail to inform students about the harmful effects of the plus/minus
grading system Cal State Long Beach is considering implementing.
“
I am elected by the students to keep their best interests in mind, especially
with controversial issues,” McClinton said. “Academic Senate is
taking so much time with this issue. They’ve been talking about it since
1998 and all of a sudden it was brought up last semester.”
An online petition was created to help stop the adoption of the grading system.
The petition can be found at www.petitiononline.com/grading/petition.html.
On the Web site, students can read about the system and see reasons why it
should not be adopted. There are 213 signatures to date.
Members of Associated Students Inc. have been trying to get everyone involved
in this issue. They have been spreading the word by going out to the student
body on campus and speaking in their classrooms. Students can express their
opinions during public comment at 3:30 p.m. Wednesdays in the Senate Chambers,
USU-217, or going to the the ASI Executive Office, USU-311.
Also, all the college councils are writing resolutions. After the petition
and resolutions are complete, everything will be taken to Academic Senate before
it does its final reading.
One of the effects is a lower GPA, which could be harmful for students who
receive financial aid or scholarships. They can become ineligible for aid because
of insufficient academic progress. A 2.0 is the minimum term GPA and one of
the criteria used to determine reinstatement of eligibility for financial aid
for such students. Normally a C- average would be a 2.0, but the new system
would make it a 1.6 average. This could make more students ineligible for financial
aid.
Some students do not see a reason to change the current letter grading system
and hope it will not be enforced.
“
I’m against it,” said Sonia Rodriguez, a senior interior architect
design major. “I don’t like it.”
The system will lower the point scale given to letter grades. For example,
an A-”would be worth 3.67 points (not 4.0 points), a B+, 3.33 points,
a B, 3.0 points, a B-, 2.67 points, and so on.
“
People try harder to not get minus grades,” said Judy Yoo, a senior psychobiology
major at UCLA. “In the beginning [of freshman year], I had to study a
lot harder because I didn’t want to get a minus grade, but I got used
to it.”
The plus/minus grading system will increase accuracy of the grade as a reflection
of students’ performance by benefitting the students who fall in the
top range of the grade category, but it may be harmful for those in the bottom
range. Since the A range is divided into two point values, professors can differentiate
their students.
Dr. Wayne Dick, department chairman for computer engineering and computer science,
does not like the grading system, but sees the benefits.
“
Of the people that are for it, they’re darn good professors who have
done real well,” Dick said. “They’re real leaders, they’re
sincere and they really believe it would be a better way to teacher people.
This system will make it easier for me to make hard decisions, such as moving
a student from a B to an A, maybe I can bump them up to an A-, not an A.”
Being awarded extra points for plus grades can also help boost students’ GPAs,
which will help when entering top graduate programs, there could be a decrease
in retention and graduation rates, due to the lower GPAs. This would be a worse
case scenario since the new system may make it hard to maintain GPAs, according
to McClinton.
“
It will affect us at all costs, no matter what,” McClinton said.
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