Take your hard classes now.
In January, minus grades are scheduled to be added to UF's grading scale.
"It was very unusual to have plus grades and no minus grades," Provost Janie Fouke said.
President Bernie Machen approved the policy last spring, and Fouke said the computer code needed to allow minus grades into the school system should be ready and tested this summer.
While many faculty members thought minus grades would be introduced this fall, student focus groups expressed concern about having some freshmen begin on unequal footing, she said.
Freshmen who began summer B would face a different grade scale than those who began in the fall. The school can avoid this problem by implementing them in the spring semester, Fouke said. Faculty members will not be required to use minus grades, but she believes they want the change, Fouke said.
Jane Southworth, an associate professor of geography, thinks minus grades are a needed adjustment.
Southworth said she believes the measure will reduce grade inflation, a consequence of having plus grades and no minus grades.
"You automatically have to bump up," she said. "Everyone who's a minus becomes a solid grade."
She said it becomes a problem when students apply to graduate school, since other institutions automatically assume grade inflation.
Kim Walsh-Childers, a journalism professor, was a member of the Faculty Senate and voted for the measure when it was introduced.
Walsh-Childers said she found it frustrating to assign the same grade to students who had dramatically different scores in her class.
"It offends my sense of fairness," she said. "I hate having somebody who's worked really hard and done really quite well get the same grade as somebody who just sort of skated by."
Ryan Moseley, UF Student Body president, wrote in an e-mail that Student Government is opposed to the changed grading scale. Student Senate members passed a resolution in fall 2006 stating SG's opposition to the proposed change.
"I believe it could potentially have an adverse impact on students' grade point averages," Moseley wrote. "I would be concerned if students weren't worried."
He said he is not in favor of the measure because it allows professors to choose whether to use pluses, minuses, both or neither. Grading across different sections of classes may not be equal because professors could use entirely different scales.
"Professors may not modify their grading scales from the ones they currently use, and would therefore be assigning less GPA points for the same work as previous years," Moseley wrote.
Fouke said she realizes that some students are uncomfortable with the implementation of minus grades.
"But change is always a surprise," Fouke said. "Change is always challenging."
