 

The Grinnell
Scarlet and Black

EPC, Students Discuss Grade Options

Seven Proposals Run The Gamul

Chicken

Cowles SAGA dliiihg hall had a number
oi speCial guests this past weekend,
mostly parents, brothers, and sisters
oi Grinnelt students However, there was
one decidedly unilsiial guest at Saturday
night's steak dinner

A large chicken which had made Grillr
nell its home decided to come ior dinnr
er. Aiter cutting the tinusiially long line,
the iowl decided that SAGA’S "special
oi the night" (which was barbecued che
icken) didn't appeal to him, so he began
wandering around the room much to
the consternation oi the SAGA workers.

Aiter a iew mintites oi chaos, an un-
identiiied member oi Alpha Sigma sigma
took matters into hisownhandsandseiz-
ed the unruly iowl Aiter initiating the
chicken into the traternity, he took it
outside the hall and released it to con-
tinue its tour oi the campus.

by John Wylie

Possible alternatives to the present
Ci-innell grading system were proposed
last Thursday and yesterday to the All
College EPC, more will be submitted to
the committee next week, Four oi the
known plans were student written, while
three were produced by iacuity members
Don Smith and Joseph Wall.

Dean \Vall‘s statement contained two
separate proposals, one overhauling the
current Credit/rail system and one
restructuring the entirecrinnellgrading
system

Wall's Credit/Fail proposal would: re
quire all work in the mayor held to be
taken on a letter grade basis. change
Credit/Fail to Credit/No Credit (tliatis,
not iiguring a grade or No Credit as an
F in computing the GPA butstill showing
the No Credit mark on the iinal tran-
script); assign a grade oi Credit only tor
work at Cquahty or above, eliminating
the D grade entirely, not iniorm instruCr
tors oi the identity olCredit/No Credit
students in their classes; warn students
that exercising oi the Credit/No credit
option could have adverse eiiects on their
admission chances to otheracademic lnr
stitutions, set November 1 as the dead
line ior selecting Credit/No Credit in
the iirst semester and April 1 as the
second semester deadline. Wall’s prOr
posal would also allow students who

later wish to have grades instead or
Credits on their transcripts to (it) so,
provided Illa| they do 50 for the entire
transcript.

Friday

October 22, 1971

Volume 80 Number 9

 

Wall's second proposal would allow
students to elect to have their entire
transcript recorded under a Credit/
Erase opttoll, The option would be availe
able to students only aim theFrcshmal‘t
year, and once elected it could not be
reversed since no grades would be
recorded, Satisiactoi-y progresstowards
graduation under his proposed system
would be considered to be

t Attainment oi a minimum at 12
credits with a GPA oi 1.8 by tlieend
oi the iirst semester

Attainment oi a minitnum ot 24
credits tvtth a GPA of 1.9 by theehd
oi the second semester,

Attainment oi at least 40 credits by
the eiid oi the third semester
Attainment oi at least 56 credits by
the end oi the iotirth semester
Attainment oi at least '14 credits by
the end oi the tiith semester.

6. Attainment oi at least 90 credits by
the end ot the stxlit semester.

7 Attainment ot at least the credits by
the end oi the seventh semester,

3 Attainment oi at least lchreditsby
the end oi the eighth semester re
quired tor graduation

Failure to complete the required mini»
mum at the end oi any semester would
make the student subtect to academic
probation A second semester oi iailure
to meet the minimum would subject the
student to dismissal irom the College
by the Committee on Academic standing.

photo by Jolt Davis

These overrdressed Grim-tell students are busily engaged in one of the final rehearsals for

'"i‘aming of the Shrew’ which began yesterday at Roberts Theater.

Cost Tomes Second Shrew Tonight

by Elliott Lewis

When the Theater Department's pro-
duction oi Shakespeare's drama “Tile
Taming oi the Shrew" is done with pre—
cision and pr-oiessionalisin, it won't be
by accident.

Front the minute i walked into Roberts
and saw the preparations tor one oi tiie
dress rehearsals i knew what was ltap»
pening wasn't inst happening

The ucll-constructcd sct, andorganizcd
lighting and audio crows, along withpcr—
iorniers in tons oi makeup dragging
around daintily in multicolored tigtits
matic ior- a tiulv proicssional icel at the
rehearsal

Talking to Director Alex Moitctt i
learned or the utility problems involved
with the production For instance, the

Donkey had to be dropped irom the cast
because at (among other problems)
transportation diiiiculties to and irom tiic
iarm on which it resides

However, the lead roles will be capably
handled iiy Martha hours as Katharina
and Keith roi-t as Peti‘llcilio, Main sup-
porting roles are held by Michile Grant
and Dennis Mackler as haplista and
ammo respectively. All together there

are 28 cast theiiihers andaboutzuotliers
who have helped with the set and other
technical aspects oi the show

An inteicsting personal touch is being
rendered in the production. A prologue
is being improvised up to a certain point
in tho play, then the play will continue in
its original snak spcar-ian tcrd

‘Stirew" is one oi [lchltentet‘pt'uduv
tions to be given, incliirliiig one dance
presentation Mr. Moiiett also notedtiiat
iivc "open space" productions are
planneri. and he urges anyone on campus
who would be interested in participating
in such a protect to let him know. “The
only thing we won't tolerate is sloppy
work."

"Shrew" is a 16th century iarcewith an
involved plot center itttt arouudahcautiiul
but wild girl, Knitter a l\ battle oi the
sexes” Grthhell‘stlieater production may
oiior an inteiesting variation irom the
traditional production.

In this production the tithing is siti'cwtl
but the acting could be a teal killer tor
the ne production oi ”To Kill a Mock-
inghird ' Auditions will he held Friday
‘2tl 3 30 and Saturday at 100

Mr. Smith's proposals would, establish
a complete Credit/Erase system, witti no
notation oi Failure or we or wr, abolish
the D grade, permit graduation on the
basis oi 124 credits with no required
GPA. and would allow a student to elect
the Credit/Erase option tor courses
atter he has received each semesters
grades

Grade Roulette

Marlee Luers and Duane Taylor pro-
posed that, protessors must record a
grade tor every student in every course;
the Registrat must notiiy a student ii he
has tailed a course or is in academic
danger; a student must request agrade
report, otherwise he will not be notiired
oi his grades; the transcript will be
available to Graduate Schools only at the
request oi the student and it will contain
no credits - all course work will be
graded, requirements tor graduation
would be attainment oi 124 credits with
a 2.0 GPA; no iacuity members will be
notitied oi the students' choice con
cerning grades in addition, they pmr
posed that students who wished to Corn»
pete tor academic honors (Pht Beta
Kappa, Dean‘s List, Graduation with
Honors) must sign a statement Signiiyr
ing this They ieel that such a system
would make competition iorthesehonors
iairer and more meaningl‘ul,

Marilyn Mullignn's proposal ap»
preached the Credit/Erase option train
a diiterent viewpoint than Dean Wall’s
proposal on the same subiect. l-ler pro-
posal would make Credit/Erase mandie
tory tor both semesters oithe Freshman
year. and make it optional iorall courses
taken in the iinal threeyears atGrinnell
tier proposal would also make iacuity
evaluations which were prepared with the
aid oi the student a part oithepermanent
transcript ii the student so requests

in order to make her proposal more
ilexrble. She added the stipulation that a
student could change any course or
courses to or irom Credit/Erase at any
time during their tour years atGrinnell
in addition, her proposal would eliminate
the D grade and stipulate that students
who take a course ior a grade and re-
ceive an F in that course will have all
record oi that course removed tromtheir
transcript.

Marilyn teels that her proposal is mid-
way in the spectrum otsnggestions she
has heard. She tools that grades are not
an accourate reilecticn at a student's
work in a course, and that the toint
student-protessor evaluation would proe
vice a more accurate picture. her other
mayor point, allowing students to ireely
change to or irom Credit/Erase could
be attacked as allowing students to tell
a number oi courses withoutany penalty,
but she ielt that the adoptionoiminimum
credit requirements ior each semester
(such as the system proposed by Dean
Wall) would eliminate this problem.

The iinal proposal was prepared bya
group oi seven students, Carolyn Ash-
haugh, Jim Clark, Jaines rernow, Rob-
ert iiuxtable, ianet_i,oar, Tom Morgan,
and Jeanne Myerson. This proposal
would be the most marked deviation irom
past Grihnell policy

“Proposal: The sole method oi ovate
nation at G’innell College should be
dual evaluation by the student himselt
and by the professor

The issue at hand is not merely one

ot grades, it is the consciousness oi
the people involved in the educational
process .. their perceptions and their
goals,"

The group icels that the dual evalua-
tion would “iorcc each student to indi-
vidually deiine the goals oi his educa-
tion”, instead oi using institutionally
deiined goals. They also ieel that the
proposed system would “gin‘ the stu-
dent the opportunity and responsibility
to determine his own achievement in
the light oi his own goals" and that
“the system would lend itseli readily
to an atmosphere ot cunpci'ahun”.

See PROPOSALS Page 3

Student Meeting

by Patty Tompkins
An iniormal discussion oinew grading
proposals beiore the all campus EPC was
held irom 9 so to ll no Tuesday night ill
the South Lounge Four EPC members,
Marilyn Mulligan, Duane Taylor, Stcve
Korstad, and Marlene Locrs led thedis-
cussion, which was attended by iorty
students, in an eiiort to learn what slur
dent ieelings are about the proposals,

On the broad topic oigrades, some oi
the ideas presented by students were: to
organize a symposium to learn what
graduate schools think about grades, to
write a student alternative to the pro
posals oi Dean Wall and Don Smith, To
make a study oi grading systems oi cola
leges like Oberlin and Antioch, and an
examination oi Grinncll student applicar
trons and acceptances to graduate
schools. Some students uho aren't going
to grad school claimed that grades are
unnecessary and ielt that it no grades
were recorded on a transcript it would
be or little concern to tuture employers,

Each oi the EPC representatives pre-
sent cxpressed their personal opinions
oi the proposals. They generally agreed
on a policy oi tnaximazation or options

Students Marlee Luers. Marilyn Mulli-
gan, and Carolyn Astthiitigh each pro-
duced proposals which were presented at
the regular Thursdaymecting orthe EPC

Marilyn Mulligan discussed the Thut‘5r
day meeting with the sod. Although
iormal action is stillseveralweeksaway
in her opinion, she saw some trends de-
veloping Tlte major question discussed
was llie need oi the college to main-
tain some kind or letter grade system to
accomodatc the proiessional schools tor
which riiost Grinnell students are being
prepared.

The Coltlmiuee’s leeiilit: at iheltiomeni

is that grades will deﬁnitely be re»
taihed. at least as an option ior those
students who want it.

According toSttellv rloyd, iacuity mentr
bers of the committee began a discus
sion oi the value oi grades as a part
oi the educational system at Grinnell
Mr. Morris Pnrslow. arguing that Grtn-
hell was an elite school wherein stu-
dents coinpeted to gain admission and
continue to compete alter their arrival,
argued that the school can not have a
situation where some can and some
want to compete, that some were Just
grade gruhbing to stay in the lnstltLIr
tion

Mr. Walker retttined the discussion to
the central point mentioned earlier
Are we going to continue to help some
students prepare ior graduate schools?
ii so, then the option or grades must be
led open tor these people Tile question
remains: can some people be allowed to
work under the grade system nhile some
do not?

The meeting closed aitei- some iur-ther
discussion ottliisissue Altllottgli nothing
was resolved, it was clear tltattheCom-
mittce was addressing the major issues
which underlie the seven speciiic pro-
posals which have been presented so tar
The Committee members ieel that only
alter these issues are resolved can aCe
tual proposals be enacted.

.NewSter

Today's so b cmplovs
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a new type iaco,

While the tt‘pn‘s design retains thehigh

degree (it readihilitv or most modern
newspnpt‘i s, we are now able to iit more
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is set on a computerized photo typee
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Qtlt‘lttlltott ot the Wrek
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SM! layout editor

 

