SGA Update

At the Nov. 7 Student Government Association (SGA) meeting, a new resolution to reform aspects of Middlebury’s course credit system was introduced. The resolution was discussed, and then tabled for later consideration until after a meeting with faculty members, when more information will become available.

The resolution was sponsored by Junior Class Senator Connor Hershkowitz ’12 and would grant 1.5 credits to specific classes, particularly introductory language courses or science courses with a lab component. This change would allow students of these subjects to take three classes per semester instead of two, hopefully helping to mitigate the disparities in work load and class time that exist between courses at the College.

With the current system, the College grants one credit per class regardless of class level, class hours or class workload. However, this system has been increasingly questioned as unfair for students taking introductory language or science class, which meet more frequently than other classes.

Many science courses meet for lecture and have mandatory labs that could run over the scheduled time depending on the nature of the experiment. Similarly, introductory language classes often meet five days a week and frequently have additional components such as mandatory drills or language table attendance.

Together, these extra components can equate a substantial time commitment. Currently science courses consisting of a lecture, lab, and discussion, can exceed six hours a week, and introductory language courses meet for over four hours a week, not including mandatory drills or language table attendance.

The one credit per class system embraced at the College is rare, even at other liberal arts colleges. The majority of colleges throughout the nation vary the credit awarded depending on the course, and although other peer institutions, including Amherst, Williams and Bowdoin, also use the one credit per class system, still others have made recent adjustments to their course credit policies. For example, at Vassar, students taking elementary Chinese receive 1.5 credits instead of the standard one credit offered for most other classes.

Although they acknowledge that a change in the credit system could ease the pressure off students, some senators still believe that granting additional credit for certain classes would undermine the idea of a liberal arts college by placing more value on some classes above others.

Moreover, increasing course credit for certain classes could carry other repercussions. In particular some senators questioned the impact of this system on a student’s GPA. A class worth 1.5 credits would be weighted more heavily in a student’s GPA, and some were concerned that if a student received a lower grade in a difficult introductory language worth 1.5 credits, the negative impact on their GPA would discourage them from continuing it.

Some senators also questioned the merit of only basing the class credit on class time and pointed out that classes that required substantial amounts of work should also receive additional credit. However, they also acknowledged that because students work at different speeds, assigning credit based on class workload could prove somewhat arbitrary, and could be further impeded by major institutional barriers. Basing class credit on workload could require a revolution of the course system and its requirements.  Changing the credit system would necessitate reevaluating the number of credits needed to graduate as a certain major and could add complication or confusion to the currently simple system.  It is uncertain how willing the administration would be to pursue such an option.

Because of these difficulties, still others felt an even better alternative would be allowing students to take a limited number of classes for pass or fail. This approach could encourage students to experiment with classes they previously worried were too difficult and feared would negatively impact their GPA.

Ideally, this situation would increase non-science major enrollment in science classes and simultaneously allow science students to manage their heavy science workload, without worrying about getting perfect scores in whatever other classes they are taking. Unfortunately, a pass-fail resolution has been introduced and ultimately defeated in the past, so it remains uncertain how successful this kind of resolution would be.

Although the discussion of this new resolution dominated the meeting, the SGA did discuss other issues in the works. Senators continue to meet with dining services throughout the coming work, to discuss the quality of food on campus.