College is, by nature, stressful. Imagine school without knowing your grades during the semester. For some SUU students, this is the case.
Knowing your grade in a class helps to gauge the amount of effort you’ll put into a class in comparison to others. This last November during a brainstorming meeting, the Department of Student Affairs came up with the idea to make the entry of midterm grades mandatory for all professors at SUU. They felt that this would help student retention and success.
Midterm grades help the student not only see where they are at in their current courses, but also allow faculty to implement any support the student may need, such as tutoring or one-on-one meetings. Student Affairs wanted this to be a joint effort by faculty, staff and current students.
Another factor for making this change was the success of other schools that have implemented similar programs. These schools include Dixie State, University of Idaho and Idaho State. Over the months following November, the petition gained over 1,250 signatures from students.
When presented to faculty, this new program was received with some initial confusion and slight resistance. The faculty didn’t want to be told how to do their jobs and did not completely understand the changes proposed. The change will create some additional work for teachers, but will help improve the success of students even further.
As of now, the bill to formalize this change with be submitted on Monday, Feb. 12 to be voted on by the Senate. If it passes there, it will then move to a 30-day public review. This allows the public to see the bill and get a feel for what the changes would be like. After those 30 days, the bill will then be moved to the president’s cabinet to be formally voted on. If the bill passes there, it will be permanently implemented at SUU in the fall of 2018.
Story by
Jake Sorenson for SUU News
jakesorenson24@gmail.com
Photo by
Mikael Kristenson for SUU News
on Unsplash
