David W. Smith/Daily NewsAshley Gore, a Western Kentucky University senior from Dayton, Ohio, protests with others Thursday outside Garrett Conference Center about the plus-minus grading system, saying it would hurt the grade-point average of most students.

As Western Kentucky University faculty walked into the Garrett Conference Center ballroom, a group of students stood outside yelling, &#8220Our grades. Our points.”

The students, wearing &#8220No plus-minus” stickers, protested outside in hopes of swaying the university senate from implementing a plus-minus grading system. The students will have another chance to voice their concerns at a second reading of the plan in March.

Although provost Barbara Burch was not there, several members of the senate relayed her message on the issue, asking that it be brought back for a second reading. Thursday’s meeting constituted the first reading, where members approved it to be implemented in the fall 2008.

&#8220We want to implement this in a fair way or in a way that works for everybody,” said Andrew McMichael, chairman of the Senate’s committee on academic quality. &#8220We don’t want anyone to feel railroaded.”

He said the committee is not creating policy, but following through with policy already on the books.

Members of the University Senate voted to have a plus/minus grading system 21/2 years ago, where it passed the senate March 2004. Burch, however, withheld approval of implementation in April that year.

An ad hoc committee was put together in May 2004 to pilot the system with a select number of students, and a report studying the system was generated. That report was for information only at Thursday’s meeting.

The report showed that during the course of its trial period, more students would see a loss in their term grade-point averages than a gain. On average, plus-minus grading caused term GPAs to decrease .025 points.

In addition to term GPAs decreasing, cumulative GPAs were lowered, too. The report showed if the system is adopted, the majority of the more than 6,000 student sub-group – enrolled full time for three consecutive terms – who were tested would see a 57 percent loss in their cumulative GPA, while only 16 percent would see a gain.

Only 26 percent would go unchanged.

The proposed grading system would weight an A+ and an A the same, but an A- would earn fewer points. Out of the more than 6,000 student subgroup who have a 4.0 GPA, 161 would keep their 4.0 status, but 63 percent, or 102 students, would lose that grade point average.

In the financial aide subgroup of 1,140 students, only five would lose financial aid under the grading system, but 104 would lose it regardless of the traditional or plus-minus grading scale.

&#8220We really don’t want it,” said junior sales marketing major Racheal Payne, 22, of Mt. Washington. &#8220It does more harm than good. We want the senate to vote against it.”

The new grading system would start with new undergraduate and graduate students for the fall 2008 semester. That means, McMichael said, the students coming in would be on the plus-minus system, while current students could opt for the new system or stay on the traditional grading system.

He said he’s modeling the start time after Northern Kentucky University, and he assumes the registrar would be ready for this change by then.

NKU will have a completely new computer system in 2008, which makes it fairly easy to switch to the new grading system, said Freida Eggleton, the university’s registrar.

&#8220The issue for us is creating a system for the cohort of students the new grading system would be assigned to and creating a system that students can opt into,” she said. &#8220We have to look into the technical requirements to make this happen so that it is not confusing.”

Eggleton said the department will need to have a more thorough discussion of the technical requirements, and will begin looking into that now that a proposal has been made.

Once the new grading system clears the Senate, it will have to clear the Board of Regents.

&#8220We want this because we think it’s a more accurate way of grading,” McMichael said. &#8220Sixty percent of the faculty is for it. I know because I did a survey on it. How many students are for it or against it, I don’t know. But the small group outside doesn’t represent the entire 18,000 student body.”