Volume CXXXI, Number 24 May 3, 2002 f

Grandfathering amendment on the table
JAMES FISHER
ORIENT STAFF

An amendment to plus/minus grading, introduced in Monday's faculty meeting, will be put to a vote by the Faculty later this month. The Faculty will choose whether to exempt the classes of 2003, 2004, and 2005 from the plus/minus system, which, if un-amended, will take effect next fall.

At the same meeting, the Faculty voted to instruct the Office of Student Records to calculate and place student GPAs on all copies of their official transcripts, but not on semester grade reports. The change will occur no later than the fall of 2002.

History professor Sarah McMahon introduced the "grandfathering" motion, as it is referred to by many students. Her motion was an amendment to the system approved by the Faculty in April after several months of debate. "I'm doing this for the students who greeted us today," she said. As faculty entered Daggett Lounge for the meeting, they walked past posters filled with names of students who signed a petition against the plus/minus change.

Ryan Gillia '04 was next to one poster, wearing a small sticker that read "learning, not grades." "I respect the professors, even though I'm against plus/minus," he said. "Maybe they know things about the system we don't know. We just need a discussion."

Jason Long '05, also standing outside Daggett, was more direct. "We do not want the system to affect us," he said. But he said he did not expect the faculty to ultimately approve the exemption for current Bowdoin classes. "Students are disenfranchised," he said. "We don't matter."

Faculty members are set to vote on McMahon's grandfathering proposal on May 20, at the final faculty meeting of the academic year.

The GPA issue appeared to be settled after the assembled professors passed an amendment, introduced by Mathematics professor Sarah-Marie Belcastro, that will keep grade point averages off the semesterly grade reports sent home. The motion calls for the Office of Student Records to include the GPA on the transcripts it sends to employers, schools, and students upon request.

An amendment that would have kept the GPA uncalculated by default, but would allow students to opt-in to the GPA transcript, was defeated by voice vote. That amendment was also introduced by McMahon.

In other news from the Faculty meeting:

- Dean of Admissions Jim Miller reported that, as of Monday afternoon, 129 students of color will matriculate next fall, more than 25 percent of the incoming class and, by initial estimates, the highest percentage ever for the College. The number of Asian and Hispanic students, he said, approximately doubled from last year. At the time of his reporting, the College was still waiting to hear from more than 100 students.

- Members of the Lectures and Concerts committee floated a proposal to put on a multi-day conference each spring, starting in 2004, organized around a single word-the example given by members of the committee was "genius"-that would draw students and faculty from every department to lectures and public discussions.