Imagine that papers are being handed back. The professor slowly calls out names and the student approaches, reaches for his or her paper, and flips through the pages to find the grade. It's a C. The student mutters the familiar groan, "This professor hates me." Wouldn't it be nice if we could be assured that our grade wasn't the product of professor bias? I propose a solution: Use anonymous numbers instead of names.
It is often the first thing we do before we begin typing a paper — write our name in the upper left corner. Almost subliminally, we know that whatever we write will be judged in the context of our name, our personality and the professor's presumptions of us. We believe that Susie — that student who always raises her hand and who the professor loves — has an automatic advantage merely because her name is at the top of her paper.
At some point or another, everyone has had to write a paper. And at some point or another most of us have felt that the professor did not like us, and that is why we received a low grade.
So, instead of having to write our names, I propose that we be assigned a random number each time we write a paper. We would put this number at the top of the paper, turn it in, and the professor would grade it, having absolutely no idea who wrote it. Students would be responsible for remembering their number, identifying their paper after it has been graded and allowing the professor to record the grade for the appropriate student.
Would this not eliminate any bias that may exist against students? Students would finally have the peace of mind that their work was being graded objectively. The ubiquitous complaint that subjective grading is unfair would finally cease. Professors would be forced to grade a paper based on the content of the student's work and not on the content of the student's character.
This is not to suggest that UF professors are especially prone to biased grading. In fact, in my experience, it is just the opposite. I have found my professors to be extremely fair and unaffected by their connections with students. However, who would deny that a professor would look more kindly upon a student who always attends class and less kindly upon one who does not? Who would deny that, whether subconsciously or not, that name in the top left corner elicits an emotion, an impression?
It is worth implementing this policy to both give the students peace of mind and perhaps eliminate the possibility that unfair bias may, indeed, exist in grading.
The policy should have exceptions. Obviously, in several classes students discuss the topic of their papers with professors beforehand, thus undermining the purpose of anonymity. However, in several classes the paper topics are often the same for every student.
So what is preventing this policy from being implemented? The only answer I can think of is that it is a minor inconvenience to the professor — an extra step in getting a grade on a spreadsheet.
Well, it's high time that we took a stand for what is right, not what is easy. It should be both the priority of the university, and the insistence of the students to ensure that work is graded fairly.
It should be our priority that the hours of reading, research, citations and typing that go into papers are not dismissed with the swipe of a pen at the mercy of an impression. Insist on anonymous grading. Insist on fairness. Insist on a number.
Garrett Bruno is a political science sophomore at UF. His column appears on Thursdays.
