English dept. switches from merit to credit grades

When UW TAs walked the picket lines June 1-15, essays, exams and portfolios were left behind unmarked. At the English department advising office, a room full of boxes stacked with ungraded papers stands as a legacy of the TA strike more than a month ago.

But after a month and a half of deliberation, on July 16 the English department decided to review the stack of portfolios and grant credit to all undergraduates who completed their spring quarter course work.

The switch to credit by the English department is the latest decision in a contingency plan for grades that went into effect after members of the Graduate Student Employee Action Coalition/United Auto Workers (GSEAC/UAW) decided not to complete struck work.

Department chairs and the Office of the Dean of the College of Arts and Sciences have been working in conjunction with Tim Washburn, executive director of admissions and records, to find alternative means for providing grades as quickly as possible to mitigate the effects of the TA strike. The Office of the Registrar sent out letters for transcripts to departments where grades remain outstanding to encourage them to find ways to finish coursework so undergraduates can have a completed transcript.

"One TA said that she thought President Richard McCormick said that graduation will not be delayed due to a lack of grades, but that's not the case," Washburn said. "Students who need these courses to satisfy graduation requirements will not receive an official diploma until the grades have been received."

The humanities and social sciences have been the areas most affected by the TA strike, with a number of prerequisite classes left ungraded.

Michael Halleran, assistant dean for the humanities, allowed the chairs of individual departments to make the decisions about grading. Discussions between the chairs and Halleran have created blueprints for specific courses to solve problems.

"Our attitude in Arts and Sciences is to let chairs make the decisions for their departments," Halleran said. "Different courses pose different challenges and there is a huge variability between departments, but we are hopeful that in the next couple of weeks we can get all outstanding grades done."

In some of the social science courses the faculty changed the format of the final from an essay to the easier-to-grade Scantron forms. A number of professors, such as those in the political science and classics departments, took the burden of grading exams and papers upon themselves. Most of those grades have been recorded.

In the language departments, where an oral component was included in the final exam, oral exams were bumped up to the ninth week to avoid a grading problem. In the Spanish and French departments, tests were not given uniformly. In many Spanish and French courses, where finals made up a minimal component of an individual's grade, final exams were either dropped or made optional.

In the communications department, faculty took it upon themselves to hire individuals other than TAs to finish grading.

However, the courses left outstanding in the English department posed a distinct challenge. Composition and a few introduction to literature courses were solely taught by TAs, and grading revolved around a portfolio of essays and class participation. And while individual essays were graded, TAs left the final assessment of the portfolio incomplete.

"When the strike first went into effect there was hope it would be resolved before grades were due," said acting English chair Dick Dunn, who is filling in at the post for Shawn Wong until he returns from a teaching position in Rome. "When that did not take place, students began inquiring about grades or at least asking if they could receive credit if grades could not be given."

According to Dunn, there were 1,200 students left without a grade or credit from the English department at the start of this week. Since the evaluation of a student's progression and class participation lays in the hands of TAs, English professors and faculty can only look over the thousands of portfolios to make sure all the coursework was completed and grant credit accordingly.

"In the next few days, we are requesting the registrar to grant credit for all students who completed work in their respective courses," Dunn said. "While not knocking down the value of grades, students did receive a whole quarter of instruction and evaluation. And it is always possible to change the credit into a merit grade when the instructor decides to made the assessment."

Although Halleran, Wong and Dunn decided that the credit/no credit option was their only viable choice, it remains an unattractive decision for the department. The effects for receiving credit rather than merit has disappointed a number of students who felt those courses would help raise their GPA.

"Students have done X amount of work and want a numerical grade to reflect that," said Halleran.

The switch to credit from merit has significant implications for undergraduates since credit does not count toward the quarterly or overall GPA. Students who wish to make dean's list must have a 3.5 quarterly average and completed at least 12 graded credits. Without a merit grade, a student may fall below the required 3.5 or 12 credits.

Also, a student on academic probation (below a 2.0 GPA) may not be able to escape probation without a merit grade. Additionally, many family auto-insurance plans include a student discount for individuals who submit a form demonstrating a scholarship of 3.0 or better.

For an English major, a student must complete two 200-level courses with a specific grade to be eligible for higher courses. The department has waived the grade-point requirement

"Typically, for students taking courses requiring prerequisites, we would do a check on them but drop them before if the prerequisite is incomplete," said Washburn. "We won't be doing that this quarter."

For those requiring financial aid, students usually need to have grades turned in to meet specific aid requirements. Since some grades were not turned in, it took awhile to update all students on financial aid. Students requiring financial aid were put on hold for the summer and as soon as grades are updated, the aid will be released for use.

"There have been students in the summer e-mailing concerns about financial aid due to the lack of grades from the strike," said Kay Lewis, associate director for financial aid. "We are currently up to date on all students who need financial aid (for the upcoming year)."

Back in the dean's office, the dispute over credit/no credit comes on the heels of a recent argument over how many TAs actually struck in June.

"The TA strike is an unusual job action since most workers return to work after a strike while a number of TAs haven't gone back to work," said Halleran, who was also at the negotiating table with GSEAC/UAW. "There is also a dispute regarding the number of TAs that went on strike, according to our numbers the vast majority of TAs continued with their responsibilities. Don't read this as anti-union rhetoric; just look at the numbers."

According to UW officials, 235 TAs self-reported strike action and didn't make the payroll number for spring quarter. The UW originally reported that 857 TAs joined the picket lines. However, of the TAs who went on strike, a small amount returned to complete outstanding work.

"The main problem posed this quarter was the volume of work remaining," Halleran said. "However, our primary goal is to provide education and reward those who have worked hard in their courses. And if there is a next time we will make sure the impact is much smaller to make sure students are not negatively impacted.