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Editorial: Supporting the GPA calculation change

The tea kettle of change is whistling on VSU’s campus. For students, professors, and most of all, the grades that bind us all together.

For years, VSU has collected all grades from a student’s time here at VSU to calculate their institutional GPA. As a student, this would mean after failing a course, and then retaking and passing it, that a student’s average would still have to suffer the impact of the failing grade being taken into account when averaging.

A concerning situation for students who needed a certain institutional GPA for VSU programs and organizations.

Yet, now VSU finds itself at the cusp of a big shift in how it all works.

On Jan. 30 and Feb. 5, forums to present a possible change were held by VSU’s Student Government Association with Dr. Robert T. Smith, VSU’s Academic Provost, in attendance. The forum opened with Smith given an overview of the current GPA calculation policy and explaining the proposed changes.

Instead of averaging all grades, past and present together, this change to VSU’s GPA calculation policy would involve only taking into account a student’s most recent grade in any respective course. This means the student in the earlier example would fail their course, but after retaking and passing it, be able to move beyond their past failures.

The editors here at The Spectator are in support for such a change.

While still in development, such a change would mean great things for a majority of the student body. No more would students stretch their budgets in a desperate attempt for a slightly better GPA by taking the same course over and over again.

In a place of learning, taking a course for any other reason than to expand ones knowledge of their desired path in life is an offense to the standards of the university. A system that encourages such an action is no better.

This change, spearheaded by the SGA, has currently accrued support in the form of an SGA-sponsored petition with more than 1,000 student signatures.

Of course, this isn’t a new idea. Several other schools in the University System of Georgia have similar ideas embedded in their GPA calculation policies. Georgia State and Georgia Southern are both universities with policies and processes regarding repeating classes that allowed for the replacement for failing grades.

This idea, still in development, has everything it needs to become a reality here at VSU. Presented by the SGA, supported by the students, and with precedent in other Georgian colleges, all that is left is to wait and make sure that the support never wavers.

This editorial was written by a member of the editorial staff and expresses the general opinion of The Spectator.

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