Program improves
By James Rhoades
Of The Print
¿st week’s snow storm gave many a chance to partake in an old sport, inner-tubinS-
[urn to pg. 11 for more photos. Photo by Duffy Coffman.
The student nursing forum,
held last October,,• has led to
improvements in several areas
for the nursing students on
camDUS.
The meeting was for learning
about students’ concerns and
their suggestions regarding the
College nursing program.
Recommendations from a
committee formed for this pur
pose were sent to John Hakan-
son, College president.
One of the major concerns
brought up at the meeting was'
the insufficient counseling for
the students. Other concerns
were that the program be main
tained at a high level and
proper information distributed
to potential students. Course
content and following pre
requisites were also concerns.
“The committee did send a
written report to each student
and that’s a plus,”, said Nancy
Menath,
nursing student
representative.. “They also
have a counselor available at
Clairmont a half day Tuesdays
and Thursdays, and we can see
- her on an appointment or
drop-in basis. She’s there to
specifically
help
nursing
students. That is a definite
outgrowth of that meeting.”
“We asked about the
possibility of lockers, but there
is a financial problem. In the
memo it said they are working
on a larger student lounge .and
one with smoking and non
smoking sections, perhaps with
better ventilation. The one we
have now is much too small,”
Menath said.
Another major complaint
brought up at the meeting was
a better clarification
of
requirements. Gloria Gostneil,
assistant to the dean of instruc
tion, said, “At this point the
recommendations have been
approved and the implemen
tation of them will be done in
time. Most of the problems
have already been addressed.
The nursing department has
begun to take care of the in
formation problem.”
CLACKAMAS CO
.
ARC
Wednesday, January 16, 1980
¿rade inflation hard to find but it’s here
j Sandy Carter
IThe Print
A look at grade inflation here
other community
illgge is like searching for the
toverbial needle in the
aystack. We know it’s there by
spainful jab, but it blends in so
¡II with the scenery that
listing it and finding out who
topped it there are complex
isks._______________________
t at any
First in a series_____
Chuck Adams, CCC director
I admissions and records,
tints to several facts that
implicate consideration of the
fee’s 3.1 overall grade
at average, which is up from
¡liter of 1970-71’s 2.96.
C’ is still considered an
ierage grade,” he says, “but
tais and what should be are
to different things. All the
flhdrawls, no-passes, drops
Haudits don’t calculate.”
“Idon't know,” he ponders,
ha tough one. I sometimes
hk we do a student a disser-
iceby sending him out of here
lha3.9 and having him get
tya 2.6 on his upper division
irk somewhere, else. But
?lbe. he adds, “if he’d gone
sight there from high school,
a only have gotten a 2.1.
fee’s a seasoning process
fl goes on here that’s very
liable.”
ideed, the community
‘W system as it works at
«amas may be seen as a
toning and sifting, process,
to CCC accepts any and all
iters, with or without
diploma, even with “D”
averages.
Says Shirley Cressler, scien
ce instructor, “Anybody can
take a class, but poor students
tend to just quit. We in general
science-ftthe 100 level—get a
lower level of student, mostly
P.E. majors and education
majors who nave to take eitner
a math or science sequence.
We don’t have many at the 200
level: they go on to four-year
schools.” In general, she says,
“lower level students drop,
withdraw or take an incomplete
if they’re doing badly, which
tends to raise the average
grade among the remaining
students.”
John Hooley, division chair
person of the humanities and
social science departments,
echoes this complaint. “It’s
been the custom here for the
last 11 or 12 years since the
board set the policy, that a
student could drop right up to
the final exam time.”
Admitting the existence of
grade inflation in his division,
Hooley says, “Certainly we’re
keeping up. But we wouldn’t
want to let it get ridiculous. We
don’t want to give an ‘A’ simply
because somebody shows up,”
he adds. “But in some of the
non-transfer areas, the instruc
tors, who often come from
non-traditional, non-academic
backgrounds such as industry,
have a different attitude toward
grading. And as far as they’re
non-transfer, it doesn’t really
matter what those students
awful lot of ‘A’s running around
get,” he says, “but it does raise
on campus,” he says. “We in
the (College’s) overall G.P-A.
English tend to think that
Besides the case of the
grades are sometimes inflated
disapperaing “D”s and ‘ F s,
where there’s a lot of student
Hooley sees the unique
teacher interaction,” he says.
strengths of older students, the
“It’s a lot harder to give a
smaller class size, and the in
formal atmosphere at CCC as student a ‘D’ when he’s been
contributing factors to grade in coming to you for help with his
flation. In a school with an paper.”
average class size of 20 and an
Another opinion on grade
average student age of 25 to 27 inflation and its causes comes
years, he says, “small classes from Don Epstein, history in
and more accessible instructors structor, who says that grades
work against the deper at all community collges are too
sonalization often encountered high. “Many of the vocational
at four-year schools,” which he courses give out too many “A’s
says makes grading simpler for and ‘B’s,” he says. “The range
instructors there.
of students here is so great that
Dick Andrews, English in we tend to be grateful for any
structor, agrees. “We have an work at all.”
Placing a strong emphasis on
writing skills, Epstein tests sub
jectively. “I hardly ever give a
‘D’ or an ‘F’,” he says,
“because the student nearly
always drops, withdraws or
takes an incomplete. We allow
students to repeat a course for
a better grade if he gets le§s
than a ‘C’ the first time.”
In light ' of the testimony ,
CCC students would seem to
receive every consideration, as
their “B-plus” average bears
out. Yet according to many
campus sources, grading is a
sensitive, emotion-laden
problem for students and
teachers alike.
Next: Is there a solution?
McCoy steps up to position
The new face in the
Associated Student Gover
nment office these days isn’t
exactly a new face after all.
her first day back at school and
on the new job. “Don (Porter,
ASG president) talked me into
it.”
Hobbies? Beamihg, she ad
mitted she won the winter-term
Jack White “Ladies’ Billiards”
competition, earning a new cue
Terri McCoy, a 25-yeàr-old
Santa Rosa, Calif., transplant,
is merely stepping up from her
one and a half years of general
office experience in the student
government offices into the of
ficial position of ASG secretary
recently vacated by Beth
Thompson.
Her new duties will include
minutes, agendas, club files,
receptionist work, typing,
duplicating and taking roll at
ASG meetings.
stick and trophy, then added
bowling,
macrame,
and
volleyball as her lesser in
terests.
“I was the only one who ap
plied for the position,” she said
ruefully in an interview Jan. 2,
A sophomore accounting
major who plans to work after
graduation in June, McCoy has
her hands full with a 15-hour
schedule, the new ASG duties,
and the responsibilities of being
a single parent with two young
boys.
A little nervous her first day
on the job, McCoy still looked
ahead optimistically. “I have an
extra advantage,” said the at
tractive brunette, “because I
already know all the people I’ll
work with.”