After discussing it for several years, Student Government
Association is taking action to standardize the grading scales of
core classes.

The Academic Affairs Committee is reviewing the syllabi of
classes in the University’s core curriculum to determine what can
be done about inconsistencies in the grading scales.

“We went to the different departments–history, theology,
philosophy, English–and asked for the syllabi of the core classes,
so we could look at them and determine if there are any problems,
and where these problems are. We are looking for grading
differences so then we can go to the faculty and find out what can
be done to get them streamlined for next year,” said Jessica
Cusick, academic vice president and chair of the committee.

The main problem SGA wants to address is that the difficulty of
the core classes varies by section, depending on who is teaching
the class and what that teacher’s standards are.

“In one theology class an A may start at 94 percent, while in
others it starts at 90 percent,” said Cusick.

The committee hopes that if grading scales can be standardized,
“students won’t feel they are forced into taking a harder class,
when they could be taking an easier one,” said Cusick.

The standardization of core classes is an issue that SGA has
recognized for several years.

“The issue itself came up two years ago. The main concerns
initially were whether or not core classes are useful, and if they
are, shouldn’t they be similar?” Cusick said.

The decision to take action this year has partly to do with the
plus/minus grading system that is scheduled to go into effect next
fall.

“We want to take advantage of this limbo year before the
plus/minus grading scale goes into effect and influences the
grading scales of the core classes,” said Cusick.

Although SGA has also discussed the possibility of requiring
core classes to have similar readings or use similar textbooks,
that is not the current aim of the committee.

“I am completely opposed to giving any teacher a requirement on
what they teach, how they teach it, or on teaching methods in
general. This only limits a teacher’s creativity, which is not what
this is about,” said Cusick.

Although Cusick hopes that standardized grading scales will help
to even out some of the discrepancies in the core curriculum, she
also acknowledges that classes will never be completely
identical.

“You can’t standardize a teacher’s mind, so there will always be
a harder history 101 class to take, and there will always be an
easier history 101 class to take. We are just trying to see if we
can make it a little more unified for the students.”