Mid-term grading policy to be voted on by faculty

The Faculty Senate Curriculum Committee has been working to develop a policy to implement and make mid-term assessments mandatory in all Rensselaer courses. The committee proposes changes as it sees necessary in terms of “courses of instruction, requirements for majors in each subject, for new curriculums, and changes or discontinuations in existing curriculums.”

The committee makes recommendations to the faculty in a stance that encourages and advances creative methods of teaching and communication. With a long history and numerous debates, the proposal came to be with the full backing of the Student Senate. The policy aims at providing a method to evaluate student progress, and give students an idea of how they are doing relative to their classmates. For those professors that offer this kind of feedback to students already, there would be no change necessary.

The FSCC aims to require course syllabi to identify “the mechanisms that are used to provide students with assessment of their progress during the semester.” Student rank and academic standing in class should also be provided to each student by mid-semester.

While aiming at implementing a policy to require mid-term assessments, the sub-committee of the FSCC decided to leave the details of the class-by-class implementation to each faculty member. These details extend to whether or not the mid-term assessment would imply a letter grade.

“I strongly urge you to support it, as it reflects a meaningful coalescence of students and faculty interests. I would like us to deliver on an issue that the students brought to me, as Faculty Senate president; one that they say is extremely important to them,” said Achille Messac.

The proposal was supported unanimously by the Student Senate and 15-2 in the Faculty Senate. It now awaits the approval of faculty in May. The proposal will then be sent to President Jackson for final approval.

“This proposal was one that the students were really in favor of, and the Faculty Senate was aware of that,” said Grand Marshal Max Yates ’06. “The faculty chair has taken this proposal to them with the full backing of the students.”