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About The Battalion. (College Station, Tex.) 1893-current | View Entire Issue (April 17, 1979)
I FIC UM I I MUtWIN TUESDAY, APRIL 17, 1979 r-ag* Highest retaken course grade counts New state policy may improve GPAs By CATHY KIRKHAM Battalion Reporter University students will be given another chance to improve their grade point averages because of a new state policy which goes into ef fect in 1982. The policy of the Coordinating Board, Texas College and Univer sity System, will allow students seeking admission into graduate or professional school to average only the highest grade of a retaken course into their grade point aver ages. The policy, adopted on March 9, will eventually allow students to take a course as many times as they want without penalty. Rep. Mary Jane Bode, D-Austin, said. The original grade and the new grade will both appear on a stu dent’s transcript. The CPA, how ever, will reflect only the student’s best effort. Rep. W.G. “Bill” Goody, D-Weatherford, who was a profes sor for 15 years, first sponsored a bill in 1977 which allowed the passage of the new policy. That bill says: “The board shall by rule establish a mandatory uniform method of cal culating the official grade point av erage of a student enrolled in, or seeking admission into a graduate or professional school of, an institution of higher education.” “I proposed the bill out of fair ness,” Goody said. “There needed to be a consistent policy. The Coor dinating Board took it from there.” The main reason Goody said the bill was needed was to help women, who were especially discriminated against by the old system. Many women go to school, decide to get married and drop out of school, he said. Several years later they decide to go back to school only i to find a list of F’s still on their rec- | ord. He also contrasted the severity of punishment to a criminal charge: “When a seventeen-year-old is | accused of committing murder, it is wiped off his record. When a stu dent makes a bad grade, the thing follows him around. It just isn’t fair,” he said. Dr. Haskell M. Monroe Jr., as sociate vice president for academic affairs at Texas A&M University, said Texas A&M strongly opposes the policy. “Our philosophy is a GPA should be what it says — a grade point av erage. All grades should count. “In a case where two students are competing for an opening, the GPAs are shown as the same, while one [ student may have had to take a course several times to get finally get it.” He said the Coordinating Board was influenced by problems Dallas junior colleges proposed. For exam- I pie, some students get sick and have to drop out. Others sign up for the | wrong course and don’t realize it. Monroe said, “We told them, we understand these things happen and ',★★★★★★★★★★★★★★★★★★ i InT TO rfeTtc*be_ course. HATE DOING LAUNDRY? Let Frannie's do it for you Aunt Frannies Laundromat * -ft -ft -ft -ft -ft AHolleman at Anderson 693-6587^- we make allowances. These things come up all the time in a major uni versity. They don’t seem to under stand that we already have measures set up. We have Withdrew (W), Withdrew passing (WP), and In complete (I).” We don’t just flunk them.” Dr. Robert S. Stone, Dean of the college of medicine at Texas A&M, said the policy won’t affect the qual ity of the students admitted into medical school. “We always have had outstanding applicants to the medical school.” The medical school reviewing board will continue to look at how long it takes a student to get through the curriculum. They also will check the work load the student has taken. “We need to understand why a stu dent drops a course or does poorly, ” he said. Dr. G.W. Kunze, dean of the graduate college at Texas A&M, said, “The policy will definitely af fect the grade quality of students since only the last grade can be con sidered and bad grades are easily covered up.” When asked why the policy will only apply to pre-professionals and graduate school applicants. Bode said, “This is where people make the extra effort. Parents and em ployers aren’t concerned with the difference between a final 2.6 and a 3.2. But when getting into graduate school, it is a do-or-die matter.” Tom Kleinschmidt, a second year veterinary medicine student at Texas A&M, said, “I don’t like it. It contributes to the grade inflation al ready going on. I think there are al ready too many allowances — many GAYLINE SPONSORED by GAY STUDENT SERVICES 693-1630 Monday through Thursday 8:00-10:00 Information & Referral Counseling easy grades given. Being able to re take courses in vet or medical school is sometimes important, but there are already allowances. “I also think if pre-professionals are allowed this, everyone should be. Some freshmen and sophomores aren’t sure what they want to major in when they come down here. They may start out pre-professional, taking the sciences, then do poorly and then change majors. They shouldn’t be penalized.” He said he liked the present system at Texas A&M. Goody, however, said the board’s decision was reached due to the desperate need for a uniform state grade policy. A problem arises when a student first goes to one college, drops out and then decides to come back, he said. That college allows the student to retake courses. All grades are present on his transcript, but the GPA represents only the best effort. Then another student from another college goes back to his school and retakes courses. But he is penalized by the old low grades still on his transcript that were also fig ured into his GPA. Students at Texas A&M aren’t given a second chance, he said. “The state schools are still strongly opposed to the board’s de cision,” he said. “They don’t under stand.” As a defense, they predicted the cost for carrying out the new policy to be about $1 million. That is ab surd. All it will cost them is chang ing a little wording in the new catalogs,which are rewritten yearly anyway. ” Ashworth explained why the pol icy won’t take effect until 1982. “First, to be certain that none of the students presently enrolled will be affected, second, because of the amount of opposition, many schools wanted this delay to give them time to plan another possible repeal of the law. WE BUY BOOKS EVERY DAY! And remember we give 20% more in trade for used books. LOUPOT’S BOOKSTORE Northgate - Across from the Post Office Next time you're in Mexico, stop by and visit the Cuervo fabrica in Tequila. 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