Students Debate Credit System
by Michelle Sharkey

A heated debate ensued Wednesday when a proposal was suggested to replace Oberlin College’s Credit/No Entry grading system with a standard grading scale. A group of about thirty students gathered at the student forum held this week by the Educational Plans and Policies Committee (EPPC) to discuss three major policy changes the committee is proposing. The purpose of a student forum, which was announced a week ago via an OCMR notice, is to elicit student input before the EPPC makes its recommendations to the College faculty. The proposals must pass a faculty vote to become a part of college policy. Though the EPPC does take students’ views into account in making its recommendations, there is no mandate that they must do so. The recommended policy changes will most likely be voted upon in April, though any approved changes will take years to come into effect.
The EPPC discussed lengthening reading period, as well as a change in how the college distributes credit hours. The change that seemed to concern students the most, however, was eliminating the No Entry grade, and replacing the current grading system with a grading scale that includes A+ to C-, as well as D and F grades. “To a huge portion of the faculty, it’s time for the No Entry grade to go away,” Robert Geitz, Associate Dean of the College of Arts and Sciences and Chair of the EPPC, said.
The current grading scale, which does not record No Entry grades on a student’s transcript, was approved by the faculty in 1970. At that time, the faculty was looking for ways to encourage student experimentation in different academic subjects, as well as decrease the pressure on students to achieve “good” grades. According to Geitz, a third of the faculty even went so far as to vote to abolish grades at Oberlin; the Credit/No Entry system represented somewhat of a compromise. Many schools experimented with nonstandard grading systems in the 1970’s; However, Oberlin and Brown University are the only remaining schools that do not enter failing grades on student transcripts.
The goal of the EPPC’s proposal is to maintain room to experiment while eliminating some of the problems with the Credit/No Entry system. The current system makes no clear distinction between dropping a course mid-semester and failing a course, potentially preventing support services from reaching students who are in danger of failing. In addition, the faculty has expressed concern that the No Entry option discourages a sense of accountability for classes, and encourages students to deliberately fail in order to improve grade-point averages. In addition, a nonstandard transcript may adversely affect students’ applications to graduate schools. When evaluating an Oberlin student’s transcript, an admissions officer “knows that there’s fine print. That difference…creates an uncertainty we’d be better off without,” Geitz said. Though Geitz acknowledges Oberlin’s strong academic reputation, he still expresses concern. “Having a hippie-dippy transcript is not doing you guys any good,” Geitz said.

“Credit/No Entry is nice because it lets you take classes you don’t know about…[the new system] will preserve that function with less stigma,” senior and EPPC member Eli Wheeler said. The EPPC’s proposal includes a pass/fail option that would allow students to take any class for a passing or failing grade, rather than a letter grade. Unlike under the current system, the deadline for taking a course pass/fail would be after midterm grades are released, when students have a better sense of their performance in a particular class. Students would also have the option to withdraw from a class after midterm grades are released, unlike under the current system.
Many students in attendance, however, were opposed to the elimination of the No Entry option. “If I wanted ABCDF, I could’ve gone to Swarthmore or to Haverford,” College first-year Jadele McPherson said. Students suggested that eliminating Credit/No Entry grading would lead to changes in the makeup of the student body, as students attracted to Oberlin may choose instead to attend other schools with liberal programs. Many students expressed concern that Oberlin is trying to attract a different type of student, a concern which Geitz attempted to dispel. “We have no interest in becoming Amherst. We have a very different student body,” Geitz said.
Students at the forum also expressed concerns that reading period does not provide adequate time to study for exams. “Students, including myself, stop sleeping and just study for finals…It’s really unreasonable,” College junior Juliet Libes said. Students emphasized that a longer reading period would mean less stress for students, cutting back on unhealthy behaviors such as going without sleep or consuming drugs, including caffeine and Ritalin, for study aids. EPPC members acknowledged this concern. “Whether you’re taking amphetamines or staying awake through sheer willpower… lack of sleep is just not good for you,” Geitz said. Oberlin’s reading period is comparable to peer schools.
“Other colleges tend to have their fall break later and combined with Thanksgiving,” Associate Dean for the College of Arts and Sciences Grover Zinn said. Ultimately, lengthening the reading period will probably mean taking time from fall break.
The EPPC is also considering raising the value of many classes to four credit hours.
“The perception among faculty is that students’ attention is fragmented; [under the changed system] people would take fewer subjects but work at them harder. “Ultimately, students’ workload wouldn’t change drastically under the new system, according to the EPPC. “The bottom line is that ordinary progress toward graduation would be four ordinary courses per semester,” Zinn said.

 

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