More than half of students surveyed agree with Student Government Association’s resolution to change the grading system.
SGA officials sent out a survey to students and faculty regarding the GPA plus/minus system. The survey opened March 23 and closed March 30. More than 700 responses were received.
“It is evident that students aren’t in agreement with the plus/minus system because they believe that it lowers student GPAs overall,” said Nic Rhodes, newly-elected president of SGA.
The results of the survey show that more than 50 percent of students agree that the plus/minus system is unfair to students. A large majority of the respondents said they prefer straight letter grades to the plus/minus system. Three times as many students believe that the plus/minus system lowers students’ GPAs, according to the survey.
In a study conducted by Dr. Jonathan Willner, chairman of economics, there were twice as many minuses given than pluses. If changed to a straight letter system, 60 percent of students would see an improvement in their GPA.
One student said she likes that SGA is trying to make this change, but wants to see how it affects her grades compared to those of students at other schools.
“I feel like SGA has given us the numbers, which is helpful, but I would like to know how our system compares to other liberal arts colleges and whether or not it affects how graduate schools look at and compare our GPAs,” said Franziska Harms, acting sophomore.
Any change to the grading system would require the approval of the Faculty Senate.
“Optimistically, if we worked the entirety of next year to push this through, we could see grading scales changed by Fall of 2017,” Rhodes said.
For more information, email Rhodes at nhrhodes@my.okcu.edu.
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