FEB'RUARY 11, 2009 | THE MEREDITH HERALD • Educating Women to Excel | VOL XXVI * ISSUE 11
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’News
On-Campus Apartments
for Students.
Events
Co/ning
Meredith
and Going at
)Col •ge
Scierice & Tecn!!|
Move, Wa|ch
i Meredith Po" , _ ,
g Center: Past jnd'Presentl
rta & Humiiiiities
Kevin Wing; St^”
the SpotlighI '
ports;
pBbxing
pinion^iCainp\i|M^tte:^
|:DGEno^f^^g|
Green Tip for
the Week of
February 11
Save energy, raw
materials and landfill
space by using reus
able shopping bags.
During the 2008-09 academic
year, Meredith College’s cam
pus theme is “Sustaining our
Environment; Developing
our Greenprint.” To help the
Meredith community make
dally choices that are ben
eficial to the environment,
Angels for the Environment
have compiled a year’s worth
of tips for greener living.
To view green tips from
previous weeks, visit www.
meredith.edu/campus-theme/
envlronmental-tips.htm.
Pftoto Courtesy hrflSKftltnas.cOfn
THE PROBLEM WITH
GOOD GRADES
Aubrey Jones
staff Writer
While UNC-Chapel Hill students
and faculty are worried about grades
being too high, students at Meredith
College are hovering at the border
of making the honor roll.
A recent report revealed that 45%
of UNC-Chapel Hill undergrads
were awarded A’s in fall 2007. Al
though many Chapel Hill students
are rejoicing in their hard-earned
success, others wonder if it was re
ally all that hard-earned. “It’s some
thing that the students like because
good grades mean good moods, but
if you don’t go to UNC it [the recent
report] just looks bad;” said Chapel
Hill senior, Patrick Lawler.
Dr. Chuck Grant, head of the
Communication Department at
Meredith College, says that A’s are
for those who have mastered the
coursework and some students are
so used to making A’s they aren’t ac
cepting of receiving anything lower.
“Even if ail students are coming in
fi’om high school making straight
A’s, 50% of them aren’t going to be
doing the same A level work in col
lege,” Grant said
Although UNC-CH has seen their
grade-point average rise from 3.145
in 2000 to 3.264 in 2008, Meredith
College has seen a drop in under
graduate GPA since 2000.
In fall 2000 the college wide GPA
for uhdergrad courses at Meredith
was 3.05 and was 2.90 in fall 2008.
The .15 point drop doesn’t bring up
any controversy in grade inflation
for Meredith, but it does have stu
dents concerned about why grades
are getting lower.
One senior communication ma
jor, Emelia Dunston, thinks it might
have to do with student prepared*,
ness. “It could have something to
do with whether or not new students
come in to college properly pre
pared for the amount of work they
are about to receive,” Dunston said.
This could mean as college cours
es get tougher, high schools need
to raise their academic expectancy
for students. '
Other students believe the new
General Education requirements
have caused the grade decline. Stu
dent Monica Nayar said, “I think the
grades have fallen since 2000 be
cause Meredith changed the gen-ed
program. If we went.back to the old
Meredith GPA
course load grades would be higher
than they are now.” The senior mar
keting major explained that when
her sister, who graduated in 2006,
was at Meredith, she had less work
than Nayar does now.
Awarding A’s to students who
haven’t mastered the course mate
rial is more of a pressure at schools
like UNC-CH rather than small
private schools like Meredith. Dr.
Garry Walton, dean of the school
of Humanities and Social Sciences
at Meredith, explains, “Institutions
that have a higher percentage of stu
dents going to professional schools
[after graduation] result in more
pressures on the faculty, and it is
more likely students are going to be
given higher grades.”
Another reason for awarding high
grades to students, undeserving or
not, is possibly the weight of student
See GRADES, PAGE 2
3.1
3-
2.9
2a
Fall Fall Fall Fall Fall Fall Fall Fall Fall
'00 *01 ‘02 '03 *04 'OS '06 *07 V8
■ Average grade-point average
for undergrads at Meredith
College
Chart Information Obtained from Dr. Wallon, Dean of the school of Humanities.
Information from 2006 was missing.
Meredith College
Learning Center:
Past and Present
(SEE PAGE 4)