However, senators supported another proposal that would require faculty members to issue mid-semester progress reports for freshmen and first-semester transfer students.

The purpose of the grade-replacement proposal, said Grading Committee Chair Thomas Schroeder, associate professor of learning and instruction, is to help students attain mastery in the courses they take. Other benefits would include enhanced self-confidence, increased opportunities for job and graduate-school placement and improved retention, Schroeder said.

The proposal would allow students to repeat courses in which they have earned grades of C+ or less. Students could repeat a given course only once, although there would be no limit on the number of different courses that could be repeated. When a course is repeated, the grade that would be counted toward the GPA would be the one earned the second time, even if that grade is lower than the one earned the first time.

Laura Winsky Mattei, assistant professor of political science, told senators that while she appreciated the intent of the proposal, she was troubled by it. "Back when I went to school, you got some good grades and you got some bad grades and that's the way it went."

She said she's encountered "increasing lobbying pressure" from undergraduates who feel "that with the right argument, I will just change their grade because they just want me to change their grade."

The motion seems to "encourage that kind of attitude" that students who can find the right strategy can "fix these things," Mattei said.

Several senators questioned the committee's stance that a grade of "C" does not represent mastery of a course.

Schroeder replied that while a "C" grade may be adequate for students to continue in the university and a "C+" grade is adequate to continue in a program, there are some instances in which "Cs" are not considered to be mastery in prerequisite courses.

Moreover, for students considering graduate school, "Cs" often are seen as "red flags," a reason to reject an applicant without looking further into his or her record, he added.

"If that's the way people are interpreting grades of 'C,' then we need to offer our students opportunities to better their performance," Schroeder said.

Don Schack, professor of mathematics, called the proposal "silly" and "farcical."

"These terms have meanings. The grade-point average is an average of grade points received; it is not an average of the things you think will do the best job for you when you apply to graduate school or a job," Schack said, stressing that the GPA should be the average of all courses taken at the university.

David Benenson, professor of electrical and computer engineering, told senators the resolution represents no more than a "continuing downturn in academic integrity."

UB is fast approaching being an "open-admissions university" that admits students who are not qualified, he said. "The 'gentlemanly C' from the past is now a 'gentlemanly B,' or fast approaching that, and in the not too distant future, will approach essentially a 'gentlemanly A.' And this resolution is simply a small step in that direction."

The proposal on mid-semester progress reports received a much more favorable response from senators. But senators differed on just how to report progress.

Benenson noted that in using the pass/fail method, a designation of "passing" encompasses a wide range of grades, from A through D. In light of the senate's earlier discussion about whether a grade of "C" represents mastery of a course, "this (pass/fail) could be a somewhat misleading result if a sufficient number of faculty members do address the situation like that," he said.

Monica Spaulding, professor of medicine, suggested faculty members use the quartile designation if they do not want to be specific about a letter grade.

Schroeder responded that quartile designations could represent different grades, depending on the course. For example, in some courses students in the bottom quartile would receive a grade of "F," while in others those in the bottom quartile would pass the course.

"Simply reporting a quartile may not provide the absolute standard that we're looking for," he said.

Schack endorsed Spaulding's recommendation. While it is true, he said, that the bottom quartile could mean a different grade in different courses, "the one thing which is unequivocal about it is that it means that you're in the bottom fourth. And if you want to know whether a student is doing poorly in several courses, well, the bottom fourth is doing poorly, whether or not the teacher ultimately gives a 'D' or an 'F,'" he said.

Schroeder emphasized that the committee wanted to present the proposal in such a way so that faculty members would have a variety of ways in which they could report mid-semester progress.

The senate will vote on both resolutions at its final meeting of the semester on May 13.