Undergraduate senators criticized a potential plus and minus grading scale University officials proposed, giving feedback to Assistant Vice Provost Andy Alt of Academic Affairs.
If the proposal passed is passed into rule, a grading scale that would apply minus or plus designations to letter grades based on performance would start in the Fall 2018 semester. As of now, Academic Affairs is gathering feedback from various departments and organizations before anything finalizes, Alt said.
“There’s a sense that this sort of a grading scale would improve motivation,” he said Monday in front of the Undergraduate Student Government. He said he wanted to push students harder, and that this grading scale would make it more difficult for students to achieve a 4.0 GPA.
Honors College students are particularly concerned over this matter, as most aim to achieve 4.0 GPAs. The new grading system would negatively affect them the most.
Alt said most of the University students range from a 2.8 to a 3.2 GPA and concluded that students who fall within this GPA range would benefit from the plus, minus system the most.
He also wanted students to put more effort into their final exams, and the plus and minus grading scale would possibly motivate students to do that, he said.
However, this decision has not been finalized, Alt said. Feedback is still being gathered, and there is the possibility the current grading scale will remain untouched.
For another concern covered at the meeting, Brad Holmes of the BG Climate Protectors brought up the Bowling Green charter amendment. The amendment will be on the ballet Nov. 7.
Most current and potential Bowling Green City Council members oppose the charter amendment, aside from 2nd Ward candidate John Zanfardino, as seen in a previous article (https://www.bgfalconmedia.com/campus/bg-candidates-talk-politics-before-election/article_8e14f7d6-b874-11e7-845c-4b5a02638060.html). The language of the amendment, which can be viewed at http://www.facebook.com/groups/BGCharterAmendment, poses questions about its legality, and Bowling Green’s Green Party does not support it.
