Faculty Will Now Count Plus and Minus Grades

Plues and minuses will be written into students final course grades from now on, the Faculty of Arts and Sciences decided yesterday.

Beginning this term, & plus or minus will become an official part of as undergraduate's grade. Almost all instructors now report pluses and minuses but the current system recognizes only the categories A, B, C, D, an E.

From now on, as the result of yesterday's vote, the grading system will officially consist of twelve categories: A, A minus, B plus, B, B minus, C plus, C, C minus, D plus, D, D minus, and E. The pluses and minuses will appear on both permanent records and on transcripts.

The new system will not now change the present method of forming the ranking group lists, but it will provide a more exact differentiation between students in case any Selective Service plan should call for exemption of certain percentiles of each class.

Yesterday's Faculty's action was takes on an Administrative Board Motion, which had six-to-three approval of the Committee on Educational Policy. The change affects only undergraduates, since pluses and minuses are already included in the graduate grades.

During the debate, a few faculty members suggested that the University give consideration to a more simple ranking system that would put less pressure on getting good grades. Such a system, might perhaps consist of only three categories: pas with distinction, pass, or fail.

In another development at yesterday's meeting, the Faculty voted to abolish the system of "selected members," which has been in force for few years to insure a quorum at meetings. Instead the Faculty voted that the following members should ordinarily go to all meetings:

Department chairmen and chairmen of standing committees under which instruction programs are offered; assistant professors during the first year of their tenure; and members of the Committee on Educational Policy and of the College and G.S.A.S. Administrative Boards.