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March 21, 2024

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Spring Housing Guide

Proposal would nix P/F classes for minors

Right now the College of Arts and Sciences is seriously considering making it mandatory for students who enroll at the University to take their minor classes by letter grade instead of giving them the option to take the classes pass/fail.

The requirement would not affect current students, but only those beginning fall 2006, according to Roger Thibault, associate dean in the College of Arts and Sciences.

Consideration of this change began when members of the College’s advisory board noticed a problem with student appealing S/U grades for classes that had once been in their minors — minors they had then chosen as majors.

But there are other reasons as well, Thibault said, including the need to guarantee all the departments in the College of Arts and Sciences are consistent with their requirements and the need to ask a bit more from students.

“This implies that we at Bowling Green have higher standards under this policy,” Thibault said. “And I don’t like students being in a situation that they don’t know the policy.”

Currently the Romance Languages Department at the University, part of the College, requires all majors to take their minor classes by a letter grade, but requirements in other departments vary.

Adding to the interest in this topic, the Undergraduate Student Government has become involved in the call for change.

Two weeks ago USG passed a resolution supporting the College and opened up the suggestion to all of colleges at the University that require students to have a minor.

“We hear a lot of stories about students who, let’s say were history minors, and then became history majors and therefore had to retake two or three classes because they took them pass/fail,” said Alex Wright, USG president.

Wright said he does recognize that some students use the S/U option to pump up their GPA, because satisfactory or passing grades do not affect a student’s GPA, although an unsatisfactory does.

“With anything you know there are two sides to every issue,” Wright said. “I think instituting this will probably help more students than it hinders so they don’t need to retake classes, spend more money and perhaps stay longer.”

Discussions concerning the issue began in early October, said Abby Snyder, USG senator for the College of Arts and Sciences. Snyder sits on the advisory board for Arts and Sciences and participated in considerations to fix this problem.

“We believe it will put more dedication into classes and end up raising the overall GPA across the campus and individually,” Snyder said. “Plus, it would not apply to anyone who is here now, only the entering class. That is the only fair way to do it.”

This change would ease the workload of those who hear appeals from students regarding the current rule, Thibault said.

“You don’t know the number of appeals I get from these types of things,” Thibault said. “If we make it policy it will appear in the catalog and everyone will know.”

At this point, Thibault said the College of Arts and Sciences predict the change will be instituted next year. USG’s resolution may help to push the change campuswide and Wright said it has a good chance of doing exactly that.

“It started at the College level,” Wright said. “That means some faculty as well as some administrators are in line, so it is not just students yelling at the administration to change something … if we all get in line it is very likely that the University will adapt this policy.”

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