Friday. October 24.1975
University Daffy Kansan
KU planning study of seven-year GPA increase
While grade point averages get higher and grade inflation continues, University of Kansas administrators and educators are looking for reasons to explain the lumps.
Ralph Christoffersen, assistant vice chancellor for academic affairs, is planning a study in cooperation with the Office of Institutional Research and Planning to determine what factors might be affecting rising GPAs at the University.
Christoffersen said the group would look at GPAs in specific classes and departments for the past seven years. Among the possible reasons for the grade inflation, he said, were the credit-no credit system and the drop-add policy. However, he said, they would be able to make any sum judgment until the study was completed in December.
According to the most recent credit-no-credit figures, it appears the credit grade option may not have any effect on GPA's.
While the average GPA has been increasing, the use of credit-no credit has
According to Donald Trible, assistant dean of admissions and records, only 605 students are taking courses credit-no credit. Only one course for credit each semester.
The second lowest number of students taking courses for credit only occurred last spring when only 935 students took advantage of the option, he said. The number of students using the option has decreased since spring 1973 when 2,241 students used
William L. Kelly, dean of admissions and records, said the program was originally designed to give students pass-no-credit. At that time a student could receive a D and still get credit. This policy was changed a year later. Since then a student had to have at least a C to get
According to the credit-no credit system, a student can't take a course that is in his major field for credit only. Once a student has earned high school graduation card, he may not reevaluate his decision.
The College of Liberal Arts and Sciences in the fall of 1988 became the first school of the University to experiment with the new technique. After that then was extended for two semesters.
During this period the University Council appointed a subcommittee of the Academic Procedures and Policies Committee to review the procedures for admission option was then opened to all undergraduate schools of the University in the fall of 1969 but it maintained its experimental status. Later that year the Student Senate approved the regulations, and it lost its experimental status.
Administrators are unsure why the credit-no credit system has lost popularity. Kelly said one possibility might be a warning in Appendix I of the faint timetable.
It reads: "WARNING: Certain undesirable consequences may result from exercising the CREDIT-NO CREDIT option. Some schools may not accept honorsary societies do not accept his grading system and convert grades of 'CREDIT' to 'C' and 'NO CREDIT' to 'F' when computing grade-point averages or penalize students who use this option."
In addition, Kelly said, some of the deans at the University were advising students not to take courses credit-no credit. However, they have had no experience with having have credit-no credit hours on their transcript and want to transfer to the Universitv.
Ian K. Louden
Staff Writer
mittee that initiated the credit-no credit option, said he thought the original purpose of the program had been forgotten. Most students use the option for courses that are too hard and that might hurt their GPA, be said.
John Tolleson, associate dean of the School of Business, said the school didn't have any objection to credit-credit education; his purpose was to provide a credit-no credit system was good. The purpose was to get students to take subjects of a greater variety so they could get a well-rounded education.
Allan Press, dean of admissions in the School of Social Welfare, said that credit-no credit had no effect on a student's chances of enrolling in college. There were no complaints about the policy from other faculty members in the school. Students aren't discouraged against using the option, Mr. Press says.
Lee Young, associate dean of the School of Journalism, said a student who had taken a lot of courses credit-no credit might have a hard time getting into the school if he was considered a borderline case. That would be a student with a GPA of 2.18.2, he said.
However, Young said, no one in the School of Journalism, was actively trying to publish it.
Dwight Mulford, dean of admissions for the R.J.Med Center, said a student who could explain his reasons for taking some courses at the Med Center wore about admission into the Med Center
"However," he said, "it is not to a student's advantage to take science courses
He said too many other things such as the student's application, his interview with six U.S. universities and his missions test and the trend of his grades counted just as heavily as his cumulative GPA. As a result, he said, taking courses on credit really doesn't have much effect.
Young, who was on the original com-
Evelyn Senecal, admissions director for the School of Law, said no adjustments were usually made by the law school in the GPA who has used the credit-no credit option.
The School of Law allows 16 hours of
experience for a four-year under-
graduate period.
If a student has an excess of 16 hours of credit-no credit, she said, he is assigned a C for the excess. Seneca said she knew of no one in the school who was discouraging students not to use the credit-no credit option.
Ed Rolfs, student body president, said he thought fewer students were using the credit-no credit option because of the liberal drop-add policy at the University.
If a student doesn't tinker is doing well
or doesn't," he said. "he doesn't have to
A student can drop a course after 12 weeks and receive a W on his transcript.
worry about credit-no credit, He can just drop the class."
Tribble said no records were kept of how many courses were dropped each year, and it would be difficult to speculate on whether the drop-add policy had any effect on GPAs.
permission from his instructor who may give the student either a W or an F.
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Young said many faculty members in the School of Journalism were unhappy with the liberal drop policy. He said the school committee of the journalism school had submitted a resolution to the school to return to the original 4-week drop policy.
opponent policy and the same hypothesis.
Tollefson said, that while he didn't oppose
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the present drop-add policy, many people in the School of Business did.
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In most schools a student merely has to notify the dean that they are dropping a course before the 12-week period is over, and they can get out of it with just a W on their grade point. In some school a student can do this for only four weeks. After this period a student must get
Unlike the credit-no credit policy, the
tran add payment does have some propoerate
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