Not looking forward to that early morning General Education class? Here’s another reason to worry.
The option to enroll in Gen Ed classes for a pass/fail grade might disappear if the Faculty Senate approves a bill recommended at a Nov. 5 meeting.
AU’s decade-old Gen Ed program allows students to take more of their Gen Eds for pass/fail marks than any other school in its peer group, according to Director of General Education Patrick Thaddeus Jackson.
“The main concern is that no other school with which our graduates will be competing does this,” Jackson said. “So one can graduate from American University with a transcript that looks somewhat suspicious because there’s lots of pass/fail on it.”
The Faculty Senate’s Joint Committee on Curriculum and Academic Programs voted 6-1-1 in favor of requiring students to take all Gen Ed courses for letter grades, according to Dr. Albert Cheh, co-chair of the JCCAP. Cheh split from the six and voted undecided, but said he would consider allowing students to take some courses pass/fail.
Eric Goldstein, undergraduate representative for JCCAP, cast the single vote against the change.
“I think we should leave it up to the individual students working with their advisers to decide how many pass/fails are appropriate for them depending on what their future goals are,” Goldstein said. “Not every student at this University plans on going to grad schools or professional schools.”
A student can currently take all of his or her Gen Ed courses for pass/fail marks, which Goldstein and Cheh both considered excessive.
Cheh said this is a policy that the JCCAP faculty felt strongly moved to modify.
Students must earn a C or better to receive a pass mark, but if they take the course for a letter grade, they only have to earn a D to receive credit.
Academic Affairs Administrator Michael Manson believes the pass/fail option is best applied to elective courses, not the Gen Ed program.
“Pass/fail means you don’t have to put all your intellectual effort into the course, so that makes it a good option for people who are exploring realms of knowledge that they’re not sure they’re interested in yet,” Manson said.
Manson believes Gen Ed courses, which are meant to make a student a well-rounded global citizen, should be represented with a letter grade.
“We want people to excel in those courses and one way of encouraging people to excel is to make it a graded course rather than a pass/fail course,” Manson said.
The Faculty Senate will likely review JCCAP’s recommendation in January so the Undergraduate Senate can hear students’ opinions before the decision, according to Cheh.
kdakin@theeagleonline.com
