NIU students could see pluses and minuses after their grades in the future if the university approves it.

The Undergraduate Coordinating Council has asked its Admission Policies and Academic Standards Committee to start gathering research on a proposed grading scale change.

Two different systems are under consideration. One would weight grades with a plus or minus rating after the grade. The symbols would be used as a way to specify where a student stands within a letter grade. The other system would use a variation of a double-letter grade system.

For example, the University of Wisconsin-Madison uses two additional letter grades in addition to the standard A-B-C-D-F system. For a 3.5 grade point average, an A/B grade is given, and a B/C is given for a 2.5 GPA.

The APASC will soon be soliciting opinions from the NIU community on the grading systems under consideration.

“All of the offices on campus would have to be involved,” said Vice Provost Earl Seaver. “Something like this takes a lot of planning.”

No timeline has been created on when the policy change would take effect.

“This is all very preliminary right now,” Seaver said. “I would be very surprised if we could get this through this year.”

A recommendation for changing the grading policy was introduced to the APASC at the end of the 2004 spring semester. APASC reviews and recommends changes in undergraduate policies and regulations dealing with admissions and retention.

The UCC establishes general policies for undergraduate study and organizes and directs the work of committees under them.

Because the grade system change would be an academic policy and admissions change, the UCC will have the final say on approval, Seaver said.

“Summer was not a good time to do this,” he said. “Everyone in the community needs to talk about this.”

How the changes would be implemented into the various offices on campus is another issue the APASC and UCC will have to look at as well.

“There’s different kinds of computer programming in different offices,” Seaver said.

The APASC will be in charge of setting up a system to gather opinions about the policy change.

“We really have not given the students or faculty an organized, formal way to give their opinions on the changes,” Seaver said.

APASC will hold its next meeting from 3 to 5 p.m. Sept. 29 in Lowden Hall, Room 304.