University of Wyoming administrators claim the impending change in Fall 2014 to a plus/minus grading system will not be a complicated adjustment for the university.
UW Faculty Senate won a many-year-long battle last semester when the Board of Trustees voted in favor of the switch. The issue had been bouncing around between faculty senate, the president’s office, the Board of Trustees and the Associated Students of the University of Wyoming.
UW Provost Myron Allen, from the Office of Academic Affairs, said the brunt of the change will be experienced by the students.
“The students will see a change. It will be an adjustment to a different kind of feedback,” Allen said.
Faculty will assign plus/minus grades, if they prefer, or stay with the straight grading system.
“Faculty will just receive a different form to record the grades,” Allen said. “It really won’t be a big change or require much adjustment.”
As for the Office of the Registrar, Allen said the switch will require some work on the software, but he does not anticipate it placing a demand on labor or staffing. The Office of the Registrar declined comment.
Allen said he is not concerned with orchestrating the switch during a time of staff reductions. The university eliminated 42 non-academic staff positions and is waiting to fill 12 faculty positions in preparation for state budget cuts in July 2013.
“It’s a one-time switch. There are lots of other problems with budget reductions, but this won’t cause a lot of administrative headaches,” he said. “There will be differences in opinion on this, of course.”
