The proposal also would improve departmental and university-wide recruitment, placement and retention, said Todd Hennessey, associate professor and director of undergraduate studies in the Department of Biological Sciences and author of the proposal.

Hennessey told senators that the current undergraduate grading policy allows students who receive a grade of "D+", "D" or "F" in a course to retake that course once. Both grades are reported on the transcript, but hours earned toward graduation are recorded only once. The two grades are averaged in calculating the GPA.

He suggested that the university instead adopt a policy of "grade replacement," whereby if a course is repeated, the second grade replaces the first grade in determining the GPA.

Under Hennessey's proposal, both grades would appear on the transcript, and the student would receive credit for only one course.

The main problem with the current policy is that it "discourages students from repeating course material which they have not mastered, especially when the grade obtained is 'C-' or higher," Hennessey said. He noted that repeating key courses is necessary for students to attain the level of competency required to be retained in their major and in the university, to graduate with a competitive GPA and to secure desired employment or graduate-school placement upon graduation.

Chance to help students

"It all comes around," he said. "It (the proposal) speaks to recruitment, it speaks to placement, it speaks to retention. But the main thing it speaks to is the students' feeling that we're here for them, we're going to let them have another chance at this. If they're a hard-working student, they can pull themselves out of a little slump. And students slump all the time," he added.

"To me, a 'C-' is not mastery," he said. "We expect mastery in prerequisite courses�we expect mastery when they (students) come out of this university."

For some students, "repeating a course is what's necessary for mastering a subject."

The proposal is not one that so much allows students to "clean up their GPAs," but rather allows them to raise "their level of knowledge up to the level that we expect them to be at when they graduate, so they can be placed in the proper job, or in graduate school or whatever they want to do."

Dennis Malone, SUNY Distinguished Service Professor in the Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering, said he generally supported the idea of grade replacement, but expressed concern that Hennessey's proposal does not limit the number of times a student can retake a course. He also wondered how it would affect a student's timely "progress toward a degree."

Hennessey said that he favored students retaking a course only once because if there were no limits, they "may just kind of lollygag through a course and say, 'I can just take this over and over.'"

Would policy foster delays?

Maureen Jameson, associate professor of modern languages and literatures, said she worried about possible delays in students repeating courses, citing a hypothetical case in which a student "polishes up his record" by retaking in the senior year a freshman-level course in which he had performed poorly, despite doing well in subsequent courses.

"I don't want anybody who's at the 400-level in French coming back to take (French) 101 just as r�sum� polishing. That's all I'm trying to avoid," she said.

Hennessey said that the university policy regarding "timely progress toward a degree" should take care of delays in repeating courses.

A benefit for the affluent

Simon Singer, associate professor of sociology, noted that as director of undergraduate studies in his department, he liked the idea of giving students "a second and third chance." But, he wondered if the policy "might further inequality in our educational process in that the more affluent students could afford the time and have the money to repeat courses, more so than those who are less fortunate in terms of time and money and resources."

Judith Tamburlin, research assistant professor of clinical laboratory science, said she was concerned how such a policy would apply to courses with limited enrollment. She cited as an example an undergraduate anatomy course she teaches in which roughly half of the class earns a "C" or below. That kind of grade can be "the kiss of death" for many students, preventing them from being admitted into their intended majors, she said.

"If 75 people decide to re-enroll, and I already have a waiting list beyond 150�that (proposal) is a real concern with limited enrollments," Tamburlin said.

The FSEC referred the proposal to the Faculty Senate Committee on Grading.