Seek student input before adding modifiers to grades

The Curriculum Committee of the Faculty Senate is currently examining altering the grading scheme at RPI to include modifiers (plus-minus). By their account, nearly all of the faculty are in favor of the change, but they have not yet solicited student input.

The Committee seems to think that there is no reason not to make the change, and that students will generally not be opposed to the adjustment. However, an informal poll of students done by members of the Poly staff has not found many students who would be in favor of the change. There exists a long list of reasons to not make the change.

First and foremost, tripling the number of possible grades would also increase the number of students stressing over grades. While some may not care about their marks, there are many students who spend a great deal of time at the end of the semester trying to push their grade up a few points, or even a few tenths of a point, so that they might make the next highest grade. In general, the students who make these efforts are the ones close to the division; very few students who are a large number of points away from the division make the effort. It is conceivable, that increasing the number of grades would increase the number of students stressing to make that next highest grade. More academic stress is the last thing RPI students need.

On the faculty end of things, The Poly feels that it would make the job of professors more difficult at the end of the semester. It seems that a majority of faculty members draw their own divisions when making grades rather than rely on the usual 90-and-above, 80-and-above, etc. This change would increase the number of necessary divisions from four to 14, the job of scaling class grades becomes that much more difficult.

The proposed change would have an extreme impact on the entire RPI community, and as such requires input from all members. The committee has said that it will solicit student input on the issue, and The Poly would like to encourage the Faculty Senate to gather as much input as possible, and make use of it rather than ignore it—regardless of the outcome.