A murky pass-fail rate in NIU math courses may indicate a problem somewhere among the students, faculty or both.

John Wolfskill, associate chairman of the mathematical sciences department, said pass rates are only slightly above 50 percent in seven core competency classes. But he thinks students are primarily responsible for their own grades and thus the majority of poor grades in the department.

“One problem that comes up is that students are vastly different, especially in lower-level classes like MATH 101,” Wolfskill said. “They come from different high schools that instill poor working skills within their students.”

Wolfskill noted that a poor pass-fail rate may be misleading because each course has different criteria.

“Some math classes are structured to have a grade below ‘C’ be failing,” he said. “It all varies from course to course because some classes like 110 or 210 might be tougher than others. … Overall, a student’s academics will be poor if preparation is poor. The intensity of math classes is also important. A student can’t catch up if he or she falls behind.”

He encourages students to seek assistance immediately for problems in math courses.

“Either students don’t know that help is available or perhaps they are intimidated to seek out the help of their professor or T.A.,” he said. “We have very good resources within the math department.”

Sophomore history major Kim Conrad doesn’t agree. She is extremely displeased with her math courses.

“In my statistics class, I received a grade that was lower than where I usually fall during previous math courses,” Conrad said. “I stopped going, though, after about five weeks because the lectures weren’t helping and my teacher was impossible to reach. And my teaching assistant patronized everything I would ask. It made me feel like an idiot.”

Freshman accounting major Ryan Dorsey echoed similar sentiments, but believes students shoulder some of the responsibility.

“The problem with math courses is that students will go in with a self-fulfilling prophecy thinking that they’ll fail or do poorly,” Dorsey said. “Couple that with the fact that some math teachers are difficult to follow.”

Junior electrical engineering major Maulik Patel said the blame should be placed on students alone.

“Failure in math classes is directly proportional to little attendance and not doing homework throughout a semester,” Patel said. “I am actually surprised by the amount of failure at NIU. There is so much help out there, whether it be professors, teaching assistants or other tutoring programs.”

Patel complimented the quality of math teachers at NIU.

“Compared to other schools, I think NIU math teachers are well above average,” Patel said. “My (MATH) 29 teacher was phenomenal and had an excellent knowledge of the material.”

Wolfskill, however, admitted students aren’t always the only ones to blame.

“The staff is responsible for the outcome of grades, as well,” he said. “But regardless, I stand behind them 100 percent.”