A radical overhaul of Oberlin’s grading system may be approved Tuesday, Dec. 10 by College faculty, which would eliminate the credit/no-entry option, add the grades “D” and “F” to transcripts and introduce a new “pass/fail” system.
If faculty favor the motion, no current students will be affected; the proposal is slated to take affect for students matriculating in the fall semester of 2004.
Last spring, the Educational Plans and Policies Committee brought a similar motion to the floor of the General Faculty, and held a meeting with students to discuss the policy. Students and faculty alike critiqued the proposal, but many saw serious merit in bringing Oberlin’s grading scheme in line with many of its peer schools. It was forwarded back to EPPC for further consideration.
On Wednesday, the EPPC forwarded a motion to College faculty which called for a revision of the College’s grading system, with the aim of improving retention, four-year student graduation rates and access to classes, according to Associate Dean and EPPC chair Grover Zinn.
“The changes are going to have a positive outcome for the College and the students,” he said.
But sophomore Ary Amerikaner, one of the students on the committee, stated that she’s against the proposal.
“I believe that it addresses some important issues and some of the rationale behind it is very legitimate,” she said. “However, I am very concerned that students have not had any time to voice their opinions on a policy that would primarily affect students.”
At the core of the complex proposal are three recommendations: that letter grades will be A+ to C-, D and F, replacing the current A+ to C-- NE system; that the CR/NE option be removed; and that a grading option of Pass/No Pass is introduced, with P given for grades from A+ to D and NP given for the grade of F.
“D” grades would count towards graduation, but the minimum GPA required to graduate would be raised from the default C- (1.67) to 2.0.
The new program will allow students more time to declare P/NP than they presently have under the credit/no-entry system. At eight weeks, it is double the four-week period during which students can currently declare credit/no-entry for a class. Students will also be able to withdraw from classes, with a “W” added to their transcript, up until the eighth week of a class.
The motion also recommends the revision of the add/drop period — that students may drop a class up until the eighth day of the class.
EPPC’s proposal gives several reasons for eliminating the credit/no-entry system.
“On the individual level, accumulation of several NE grades significantly slows down progress toward graduation,” it says. “If the D grade were available, and counted as credit toward graduation, then students who currently find D work recorded as NE ... would find that same work counting toward graduation.”
“The second benefit of eliminating the NE grade/option would be more institutional in focus, but benefits students directly,” it continues. “Elimination of NE and the ‘informal drop’ phenomenon would, we believe, encourage students to plan better their course selection and would help reduce the current problem of course access.”
It will also seek to remove “any question about the Oberlin transcript being an accurate indicator of a student’s academic work at the College.”
While adamantly supporting a revision of the grading system, Amerikaner feels that there are serious flaws in the current proposal that deserve more attention. She also believes that eliminating the credit/no-entry system may be the wrong way to go.
“I do not know about what grad schools think about our CR/NE program,” she said. “I do know that Oberlin Online’s section for prospective students says, ‘Oberlin College has an outstanding record for getting its graduates into the best graduate programs in the country.’
“I am concerned also about students who come from school systems that have not prepared them as well as others, possibly exclusive private schools, have prepared other students,” she added. “The present system of CR/NE allows these students from less advantaged high schools to get acclimated to the system without having a permanent scar on their transcript and GPA from a first semester shock.”
But Associate Professor of Rhetoric and Composition Laurie McMillin, who also sits on the committee, demurs, saying she likes the “W” policy.
“This allows students some flexibility — they’ll be able to pull out of a course through the eighth week,” she said.
Amerikaner asserted that placing the Pass/No Pass barrier at the eighth week is not late enough to allow students flexibility.
“Frequently, students do not get midterm exams/papers back until past the eighth week of classes,” she said. “Thus the decision to declare a class P/NP has to be made before getting any significant feedback from a professor.”
Amerikaner did, however, declare her support for providing more grading options to professors, and does believe that the new system will improve access to classes. “It will help course access, which is a real problem at Oberlin, by keeping students who aren’t really interested in a class from registering just to try it out for half a semester and thereby keeping others who really want or need the class from getting a spot,” she said.
McMillin said she expected there would be some “outrage and panic” among faculty and students, but encourages everyone to carefully ponder the proposal before coming to quick conclusions.
“Some people are quick to imagine a callous bureaucrat has been at work,” she said. “But it’s important to remember that this proposal was thoroughly discussed by members of the committee -- all of whom impress me as people who have the students’ and the College’s interests at heart.”
The credit/no-entry system was adopted in 1970. In February 2001, the North Central Association — the Association that accredits Oberlin College — adopted a guideline that “transcripts [should] follow commonly accepted practices and accurately reflect a student’s academic experience.” The existence of NE means that the Oberlin transcript is not an accurate record. The only other major college or university that still has a NE — in their case, a “no credit” — grade is Brown University.
In the academic year 2000-01, 7.25 percent of Oberlin grades were NE. Zinn believes that the “informal drop” component of Oberlin NE grades represents four percent of the total grades in any given year.
Assuming that about 9,000 grades are given in any semester in courses for three hours or more of credit, then this estimate of a four percent informal drop rate translates into 360 actual informal drops per semester. It represents 18 classes of 20 students each.