Attendees at last Tuesday’s faculty meeting passed an Educational Policy Committee (EPC) resolution that will limit the amount of times a course can count toward graduation.
“Resolved: that if a course may be repeated for credit then it may be taken at most twice for a letter grade (A-F) and it may be taken at most four times for graduation credit. This restriction applies only to undergraduate students,” reads the measure.
Professor of Biology and Earth and Environmental Sciences and Faculty Chair of the EPC Barry Chernoff said that 99 percent of students who take a course for a second time get a grade of an A in it.
“Grade inflation is something that we have to face up to at the University, and in many areas, academic distinctions between students are occurring between As and A minuses,” Chernoff said. “Students are taking classes multiple times, and that’s inflating their GPAs. There are students who take courses seven or eight times and get As or A pluses seven or eight times. That’s inflating an individual’s GPA, and it’s not fair to other students.”
Chair of the Student EPC Sam Ruth ’08 remarked that there is a problem with students repeating courses and their motivations for doing so.
“Students do not take courses more than once if they do badly in them,” Ruth said. “They don’t get a C or D and then reenroll to improve themselves. Students reenroll and get an A, and while we have no desire to disallow students taking courses, we want to eliminate grade inflation.”
According to Ruth, repeating courses is only one cause of the greater problem of grade inflation. Although he thinks grade inflation is a huge problem, it was not the main focus of EPC policy this past year.
Chernoff explained that the new resolution does not restrict students from taking courses more than four times, but only from counting them as more than four credits toward graduation. He also noted that the new policy was not directed at any one department.
“There are many often-repeated courses,” Chernoff said. “A number of them are in the Music Department and the English Department. In the science departments, many students repeat research courses. [This measure wasn’t] leveled at any one area. It cuts across the University.”
Professor of Music Mark Slobin thinks there should be more departmental autonomy rather than an across-the-board University policy. He explained that the Music Department, which offers graded lessons to all majors, should be able to determine its own grading and credit policies.
“The Music Department in general is one of the departments in which people take courses that look the same but allow them to keep perfecting their skills, like lessons, and many other courses like writing and theatre,” Slobin said. “The more you take the course, the deeper you are going into it.”
Slobin also said that instructors might feel if students take their lessons pass/fail, they might not be putting in the same amount of effort if their lessons were to be graded.
“I don’t think there’s any reason I shouldn’t get credit [toward graduation] for a class that’s repeated,” said Miles Turner ’08, a Music major. “Also, for any class it’s important to get a letter grade because it’s important to get feedback from the teacher on how you’re doing.”
Turner also addressed sentiments that the Music major lends itself to furthering grade inflation.
“I would say that the Music major might be the most grade inflated major but it’s the least likely to get you a job when you graduate,” Turner said.
Ruth expressed that if individual departments were dealing with the repeated credits in an effective manner, the EPC wouldn’t have to address any issues.
“This suggests that not all departments are doing the job they should be,” Ruth said. “We would not address this issue if we thought this was draconian.”
The EPC is composed of six faculty members, two voting student members, and two additional student members, and it addresses academic issues including the review of programs and departments, academic regulations, and general academic procedures.
Although the policy has been approved, it is unclear exactly when the grading and credit changes will begin. According to Ruth, the new regulation is not retroactive, and no students will have grades or credits removed from their transcripts.
Comments are closed