The Faculty Senate addressed the process in which it hands out grades Thursday at its meeting.
Sen. Carruth McGehee, a mathematics professor and faculty senator, proposed a detailed resolution calling for the University to review each department’s grade distributions.
“Grades are not everything,” McGehee said to an amused audience. “I myself did not make all As in college. I thought that those who did were showing a lack of discrimination. Grades are not everything, but they have a certain job that they ought to do.”
The resolution proposes every department’s administrative leaders promote analysis and discussion of grading standards and practices.
“Did we forget to consider grading standards in our decisions about good teaching and programs?” McGehee asked. “We cannot safely allow the University’s policy on grades to erode away. Continuing as they are, measures will reach a point at which the University will be deeply embarrassed in front of all those we serve.”
Several senators expressed concerns about the proposed resolution.
Sen. Jill Suitor admitted she has a very high grade distribution.
“I also have students read several 300-page books each semester,” Suitor said. “The ones who stay work very hard to make those grades. I think those professors with high grade distributions should have to maybe provide justification.”
Sen. Irvin Peckham commended McGehee’s resolution but expressed his own concerns.
“I think that there is indeed a stigma attached to grading too easily, but the stigma works both ways,” Peckham said. “There’s a stigma attached to professors who seem to grade too easily, as well as looking at it from the other point of view. Students attach a stigma to teachers who grade too hard.”
Peckham asked the Senate to consider that teachers are pushed to try to be rigorous graders and establish the prestige as rigorous graders.
Faculty Senate President Laurie Anderson encouraged senators to read the resolution before the December meeting and think of possible amendments.
The proposed resolution comes just after the Student Senate approved a resolution asking the administration to post individual teachers’ and courses’ grade distributions online.