After a semester of debate over whether or not Saint Louis
University should adopt a grading policy that allowed for plus and
minus grades, the faculty senate decided late last May to impliment
the system in the hopes of stemming grade inflation.

Currently SLU can distribute grades of B+ and C+ but no minus
grades.

“Having a plus and no minus clearly inflates grades. It is doing
a great disservice to SLU’s graduates,” Timothy Lomperis, Ph.D.,
chair of the academic affairs committee, said last February.

“Adding a minus would allow SLU to become a much more credible
institution,” Lomperis said.

Academic Vice President Jessica Cusick said recently, “Grad
schools don’t understand our GPA system so they don’t trust it. And
if they don’t understand it they just use GRE scores and don’t look
at our grades at all.”

Despite the opposition of the School of Nursing and the Edward
and Margaret Doisy School of Allied Health, the policy has held
strong support in the College of Arts and Sciences.

The system would not be grandfathered into practice but rather
become immediately effective as of the beginning of the ’05-’06
school year, Cusick said.