Thirty-five years in the making, some NIU faculty have been campaigning to change the grading system.

The issue has been debated for years, but no official changes in the grading scale have been made.

Calling for a change

“After studying the issue during all of last year, and after soliciting input from faculty and students, [the admissions policy and Academic Standards Committee] recommended to the Undergraduate Coordinating Council that NIU retain its current A, B, C, D, F system,” associate management professor David Wade said.

Music graduate student James Matheson Jr. questioned how grades would be broken up and what would an alternate grading scale mean for transfer students.

“I’m not sure if anyone outside the academic world cares what students’ GPAs are,” Matheson said, “At least, I’ve never been asked that at a job interview.”

Retired professor David Wagner feels it would be a shame if changes weren’t made.

“Because awards and scholarships and admissions to grad school depend on grade point averages, it’s important grades reflect the situation,” Wagner said.

Neighboring schools

The University of Wisconsin and University of the Illinois at Champaign have alternate grading scales.

The University of Illinois added weighted plus and minus grades to its grading scale in the fall 1996 so an A- would be worth less than an A, a B+ worth more than a B, and so on all the way down to a D- and an F, according to the University of Illinois.

The University of Wisconsin Law School uses the same grading scale.

“The difference between A- and a B+ student is arbitrary,” Wagner said.

Wagner feels 99 percent of his problems were worrying over a few borderline grades when a more accurate grading system could relieve professors of all the stress.

“If they went to the plus and minus system I think it would make people on the line between a B and an A a little more happy,” Matheson said.

Wagner believes the reason the grading system has not been officially changed has to do with opinions within the administration and transferring issues.