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Show lessons, Fail 2003 page 5 grading freedom." Academic standards at the University of Utah vary throughout departments, according to Trisha Jorgensen, a fourth year pre-med student. Jorgensen says that having a fair and balanced grading policy throughout University colleges and departments is "hard because if you take a 4.0 in the science department and a 4.0 in the communication department, they are not really equal. It's hard to judge if the same amount of work has been done and who earned their A more." She said that grading on a curve is a very common practice in the College of Science, and believes there are better ways to grade. Speaking from experience in an organic chemistry class she took, Jorgensen said, "I don't think grading on a curve is necessarily the best thing. If a professor is doing their job, there is no need for a curve. I see a failure in the professor if half the class is getting less than half the questions right." On the other hand, she thinks that "if the University says there needs to be a set of guidelines, it's not really fair to the professor. I don't think it's right to say that they can only give out a certain number of A's. If a student is doing A work, they really deserve an A. It's very hard to come up with a solution for it!" Jorgensen, like Burgemeister, knows that the grading policy can't be fixed overnight, but would be happy to see the administration attempt to facilitate a more fair policy. LaDon Roeder is a doctoral candidate in the department of education. Roeder is a student and an instructor, giving him a unique perspective on grading policies. When asked how he viewed the University grading policy, Roeder said "professors once had the autonomous thought and structure of their courses, that's definitely not the case now." Due to controversy about varying grading policies, professors are careful when giving grades, which according to Roeder "may cause them to look more broadly at a student's content." He believes, "students have become more consumer minded in their college education. Students demand more as a customer [of higher education]." Instructors devoted to improving the quality of grading "shouldn't worry so much about the scales that we measure [grades] on, but more about the content." Roeder continued "the problem is, how can we come to a greater consensus on that content?" Clearly, no one person has the right answer on how to improve the grading policy. Professors' opinions on grading policies differ quite a bit. Dr. Edna Rogers of the department of communication, sees almost no value in the plus and minus system. Rogers says, "I use [pluses and minuses] very sparingly, but others may find them very useful." Her biggest concern is that there is "enormous grade inflation." Rogers stated that it seems as though grade point average is not as important as it used to be, and that when it comes to getting into graduate schools Matt Burgemeister feels the plus and minus system is fair and makes for more accurate grades. "It provides incentive to work hard," he says. |