2 - The Michigan Daily -= Monday, June 11, 2001 S111.. - _ - - "Our concer A N G N Gadversely aI' RC students to receive letter grades n Is that the RC philosophy of education may be 'ected by the Introduction of letter grades." I By Sarb ett For the Daily Nothing lasts forever, and neither does a long-standing tradition within the Residential College. Designed to discourage competitiveness among stu- dents and encourage improvesent and learning, the RC's policy of awarding written evaluations in lieu of letter grades will change this fall. For the first time since the RC was formed more than 35 years ago, RC students will receive letter grades in addition to written evaluations, with a few exceptions. Not affected by the new policy are classes under the RC foreign language program - intensive classes in Russ- ian, Spanish, French, German and Latin. The classes, which require stu- dents to take 8 credits worth of a lan- guage for two semesters, are designed differently from other classes. Because the classes are intensive and students are expected to learn a wide variety of skills in a short amount of time, stu- dents pass to the next level based on end-of-the-semester performance as opposed to the more standard cumula- tive performance, which factors in work throughout the semester. The new policy only applies to this year's freshman class and subsequent classes. Several factors contributed to the policy changes, said Thomas Weiskopf, director of the RC. "We were getting an increasing number of requests for GPAs for RC students and while, in the past, we could provide an estimate, we could not provide an official GPA," he said. The change also follows the recom- mendation of an externalreview commit- tee that analyzed the college a few years ago and recommended the RC offer grades as well as written evaluations. The decision to implement letter grades has not been without controversy. To gather input the RC created the RC Working Group on Evaluations and Grades, which has been working on this issue for the last year and will continue to work through next year. "Our concern is that the RC philos- ophy of education may be adversely affected by the introduction of letter grades," Weiskopf said, adding, "This has been a very controversial matter since it began to be discussed a few years ago and opinions remain divided on the wisdom of the move." Warren Hecht, Assistant Director for Academic Services for the RC and head of the creative writing program, has been teaching in the RC for more than 30 years and has yet to give a student a let- ter grade. "It's something I've been thinking about a lot," he said, "how to put a letter grade on a creative writing paper. One of the purposes of grading simply by written evaluation is that it makes the classes non-competitive. Per- haps receiving grades will put students in a more competitive frame of mind." Hecht added he feels grades will give the RC a different atmosphere. "I'm sure the students will do very well, but it won't be the same for those of us who continue to remember." RC students also remain divided as to whether or not letter grades have a place in the RC. - RC junior Gia Jones disagrees with the new policy implementing grades. Thomas Welskopf, Director of the Residential College, faces a policy Cho some say could harm the learning philosophy of the college. F Jeg iste for Summer ciasses June 28-August 3. _ .FBTTESS Tennis, Swimming, Kic oxing, Aerobics anc1 Super ircuits. 764-1342. www.umic .edl-umove "I actually wouldn't have even applied to U of M if there wasn't a program like the RC," she said. Jones said receiving a written evalu- ation pushed her to learn more than just the questions that are covered on tests in graded courses. "I was never a big fan of grades or tests because it just shows how good someone is at memo- rizing things and regurgitating it back to the teacher, so when I saw that the RC did evaluations instead of grades I jumped at the chance to finally be in an educational situation where I would be expected to actually learn and gain more knowledge to merge with what I already knew," she said. Even though Jones will not receive grades, she said she still feels slight- ed by the change. "(The change) says to me that because the school I'm in is so small, it doesn't matter, and even though its set-up works well for me and my learning style and maxi- mizes the intellectual gain I get from attending this university, it still doe n't matter. It's like the RC was square peg and its ends were roundt out so it could fit in a circular hole.' RC junior Luke Carmichael said I believes the changes are for the bette He said he believes the written evalu tions, when coupled with letter grade would provide more information a a student and that grades mi1 encourage competitiveness betwee students, causing them to learn more. Carmichael also said the impl< mentation of grades could mean R classes would be less likely to b treated as "blow-offs." Although she said both policies hav advantages and disadvantages, RC sopt omore Sarah Nisbett agrees wit Carmichael because she believes tht placing grades and evaluations toget create a better system than just recein grades or just receiving evaluations. "I wish we had that for our class she said. "I feel like we missed out." I IIIIIIIIII: - "I . I - Is= III $15 Earn up to $15 per session in negotiation experiments being held in the business school throughout May, J une and J uly. Experimental sessions last under an hour. You will be eligible to participate in more than one experiment and possibly more than one session in the same experiment. Days: Sunday through Friday Times: 5:00 and 6:30 PM. To be included in the pool of possible subjects, register at http://ddm.bus.umich.edu/-s ummer01 To participate, you must be over the age of 18. The Michigan Daily (ISSN 0745-967) is published Mondays during the spring and summer terms by students the University of Michigan. Subscriptions for fall term, starting in September, via U.S. mail are $100. Winte term (January through April) is $105, yearlong (Septemberthrough April) is $180. On-campus subscriptions or fall term are $35. Subscriptions must be prepaid. The Michigan Daily is a member of The Associated Press and The Associated Collegiate Press. ADDRESS: The Michigan Daily, 420 Maynard St., Ann Arbor, Michigan 48109-1327. 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