SA Senate passes pass/fail resolution

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by Elaine Lew

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Last Monday, the Student Association Senate passed a resolution recommending a change in the deadline for designating a course pass/fail to the end of the 10th week of classes.

Currently, students may designate a course pass/fail up to the fourth week of class.

The resolution will now go to the Committee for Undergraduate Curriculum for consideration.

According to SA Treasurer Michael Munson, who sponsored the resolution, neither students nor professors can lose from changing the pass/fail deadline.

"This change would lead to increased class participation," Munson said. "And professors will benefit from the invigorating experience in the classroom."

"This change ... will encourage students to remain in tough courses and continue learning even if they are not doing well," Munson said at the meeting.

Some students and faculty members are concerned about the resolution improperly inflating grades. Chemistry Associate Professor and Wiess College Master John Hutchinson feels that the proposal may encourage some students to perform at mediocre levels.

"[The proposal] will encourage a student who is performing poorly in a class -- but not so poorly as to be at risk of failure -- to convert to [pass/fail] and then to stop performing or to perform at a sub-standard level, knowing that the best and worst grades available are both [pass]," Hutchinson said.

"This proposal seems to reflect a belief that the pass/fail system was designed to allow students to selectively protect poor grades in progress," he said.

However, Munson does not view the resolution as an advocate of improperly raising grade point averages.

"Any attempts to boost GPAs will be diluted by the other 110-plus course hours required to graduate from Rice," read the proposal.

Munson said the measure will give more flexibility to students, but Hutchinson disagreed.

"The only added flexibility offered by this proposal is the option to wait until the 10th week of class to decide which one course, if any, to designate pass/fail," Hutchinson said. "That type of flexibility is unrelated to the reasons for having a pass/fail system in the first place."

This item appeared in the News section of the February 9, 1996 issue.

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