Grading system can be ‘D’stressing
By RICHARD SEVEN
Of the Emerald
When the D grade was rein
stated after two years in academic
limbo, it was argued it would
stem the rising tide of grade infla
tion and enable professors to
grade more precisely and justly.
“It was felt,” says William
Lamon, associate professor of
education and a key figure in
bringing back the D,” that the
grading system of A, B, C, F
needed refinement. The gap bet
ween F and C was too wide. The
gap had to be filled with a grade far
below mediocrity, but still pas
sing.”
Without the D, teachers were
often accused of “saving” a stu
dent doing below C standards by
giving him or her a C instead of an
F grade.
Whatever the reasons for the
implementation of the new grade,
it seems to be causing students,
faculty and administrators more
confusion than they bargained for.
One teacher tells of a student
who was caught plagiarizing a
final project. The teacher gave the
student three grading options,
who chose an F for the paper and
a D for the course, despite the
teacher’s effort to explain the
trouble the new grade could
cause. Apparently the student
was and may still be convinced
that by getting a B in another class
she could even out the D to main
tain a C average. Not so.
Part of the confusion has been
caused by the five different rules
(50, 65, 75, 85, 95) the University
uses to interpret the D.
Under current University policy,
the D counts as positive credit to
ward University general require
ments of 186 accumulative credit
hours.
However, a student must also
satisfactorily pass 90 percent of
his or her classes at this University
to graduate.
This means a student graduat
ing with 186 credit hours can have
no more than 18 hours of D credit.
If so, he or she will have to take
more classes.
The University uses a 65 per
cent rule to compute academic
warning and probation. This
means a student must satisfacto
rily pass 65 percent of the work
attempted. In this case, the D is
considered a passing grade.
So a student taking 15 hours a
term can get three hours of D a
term and never be placed on warn
ing or probation. This means a
student can surpass the allowable
limit of 10 percent Ds and never be
alerted.
Don’t think it doesn’t happen.
Since the beginning of winter
term, the Scholastic Deficiency
Committee (SDC) has not moni
Chicken menu re —1[continued fom page a)
Another manure manufacturer,
who preferred to remain anony
mous, operates a 50,000 broiler
farm west of Junction City. She
hasn’t been doing so well in the
manure business. “We re too far
out,” she explains. She entered
the market only recently.
Bob Papannen, who owns a
90,000 chicken farm on Rattle
snake Road in Dexter, has been
successfully selling manure for
four years. Demand for manure,
Papannen explains, varies with
the weather. Wet springs, like the
one Eugene had last year, dam
pen the manure market. Wet
ground makes the manure hard to
spread. Even with the constant
changes in manure demand,
Papannen usually makes enough
off manure to pay for replacement
sawdust, with profit to spare.
A check on the commercial ma
nure market shows chicken ma
nure has sales potential. A 50
pound sack of industrial fertilizer
can sell anywhere from $4.85 to
$7.25. This doesn’t begin to com
pete with chicken manure which in
comparison is dirt cheap. A
company in Salem has picked up
on the low cost of chicken manure,
and has started bagging it. Indus
trially bagged, chicken manure
sells for $1 a 50 pound parcel.
As a product chicken manure
also has its draw backs. It’s rich
stuff and should be spread care
fully. Dormitory residents should
not buy chicken manure for their
plants. ’
But if spread thinly, chicken
manure offers a high crop yield.
Manufacturers sell it mixed with
sawdust, which dilutes the 75%
nitrogen content. Once the ma
nure has mellowed in the soil, al
most anything will grow. Garden
ers can watch their seeds grow
into juicy chicken manured vege
tables, or they can sit on their
plants when they are wee. That’s
the kind of a world we live in.
tored the number of students
placed on warning or probation,
but those guilty of violating the 90
percent rule has increased from
234 in the fall to 352 in the winter.
The Office of Student Services
has been sending letters to these
352, but Assistant Registrar Chris
Munoz, says it’s far from a satis
factory answer.
“It’s no solution," says Munoz,
“It’s just a measurement to warn
people who are getting them
selves into trouble. If the D trend
continues to rise, which right now
it looks like it will, I’m going to the
SDC to come up with a process to
monitor cases of academic warn
ing and probation.’’
Counselor Jane Farrand De
gidio, says transfer students,
along with freshman and sopho
more students, should be espe
cially aware of the D’s implica
tions.
Transfer students should
realize the 90 percent rule applies
to work completed at this institu
tion only. It doesn’t matter if they
come from previous schools with
D-less records.
So if students come to Oregon
to complete their last 90 hours,
they would only be allowed nine
hours of D each, not 18.
If that isn’t confusing enough,
Shirley Wilson, director of Student
Services, says students who are
put on academic warning and/or
probation are also finding it dif
ficult to understand.
“A lot of students have been
coming in wanting an explanation
why they were put on academic
probation because of Ds without
ever being on academic warning,’’
says Wilson.
According to University stan
dards in interpreting the D, Wil
son says, "In some cases one D
grade in a term wouldn’t be
enough to place the student on
warning, but say two more the
next term would put him on proba
tion.
“Academic probation, of
course, limits the hour load a stu
dent can take to 18 hours, and
more of the same academic per
formance can get him or her dis
qualified.
Wilson says not only do stu
dents find themselves in this situa
tion more often with the D grade
than with the F, but in some cases
students have been choosing to
take Ns or Fs rather than Ds.
This brings us to another rule
and another paradox of the D
grade — the 85 percent rule.
Under this ruling students can
accumulate 32 hours of F, in all
work graded, while they are al
lowed only 18 hours under the 90
percent rule.
Wilson says when a student
doesn’t need a class and the D
might put him or her on probation,
the student often chooses to take
an F.
Lamon says the grade was orig
inally intended as a “compassion
ate” grade to help those students,
particularly in the hard sciences,
who try hard but can’t keep up with
majors in the field.
However, admitting the system
has become more punitive than
compassionate, Lamon agrees,
“There are just too many rules.”
As of yet, it seems the SDC
doesn’t intend to make any revi
sions in the process. In the mean
time, students should be aware
that scraping by with a D is not
saving themselves.
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