Have you seen your grades lately?

4/17/08

By Ben Holbrook
Managing Editor

A proposal to make it mandatory for all professors to submit midterm grades was made during Wednesday night’s SGA meeting but was met with fierce opposition.

The proposal, which was brought to the SGA by faculty members, would make it mandatory for all professors to submit midterm grades. As of right now, it is optional for a professor to submit a midterm grade.

Many of the SGA members were opposed to making such a change citing reasons such as, students are responsible for knowing their own grades and the faculty are the ones who should handle this type of issue.

The faculty members who brought up the issue wanted to get the SGA’s opinion on the matter since they represent the student body, Maciel said.

“I wasn’t complaining about how it was decided,” Maciel said, “but faculty members and I thought it would pass fine.”

The Academic Policy Committee is responsible for handling this type of issue, Maciel said.

Although the initial proposal to make midterm grades mandatory was voted down unanimously, SGA members were open to making adjustments to the proposal such as having grades be posted in Blackboard. Another idea included having professors submit an actual grade.

A new proposal was made during the meeting to have professors submit grades in a timely manner which failed to pass during a vote 18 to 4. One of the main issues with the proposal was that “timely manner” was too open to interpretation and it is possible it wouldn’t change the way grades are handled now.

Discussion about the grade resolution was heated which was Maciel was surprised by because, “I didn’t think it was going to be a big issue.” Maciel doesn’t have an issue with the way grades are handled now because, “all of my professors give me my grades.”

Each department typically handles the way grades are given, Maciel said.

Although a resolution to make such a change, as this would typically be handled by the school administration, faculty members wanted the SGA’s opinion on the matter, John Maciel, SGA president, said. Even if SGA approved a resolution to change the grading policy, Donna Dalton, Academic Dean of Student affairs and President Carol Moore would make the final decision.

Roughly 60-65 percent of the professors submit a midterm grade, Maciel said.

Even though the grade resolution didn’t pass Maciel wasn’t fazed by the outcome, “what’s done is done,” he said.