S.A Votes Against Median Grades for Transfers

The Student Assembly passed a resolution — by a vote of 17 to 1 — yesterday that seeks to ensure that current transfer students will not be subjected to the University’s new policy of publishing median grades on transcripts.
Andrew Brokman ’11, S.A. Transfer Representative, had proposed Resolution 26, which “requests that the registrar clarify the Median Grade Policy, so that it is in conformity with the Faculty Senate Resolution.” It states that students who will graduate any date earlier than June 2012 should not have the median grades on their transcripts.
Last year, the University an­nounced that it would begin putting the median grades of courses on students’ transcripts. The policy was created in 1996 by the Faculty Senate, yet was only implemented in 2008 when it became technologically possible.
According to Brokman and Jared Feldman ’11, the Faculty Senate Resolution was not intended to affect transfer students. Feldman explained that transfer students were taken by “complete surprise” when they saw the median grade reports on their transcripts last semester.
Resolution 26 further states that “the Registrar has interpreted the [Median Grade Policy] to mean that transfer students receive median grades on their transcript while their colleagues of the same class year do not … this places transfer students at a disadvantage when they … compete for jobs and internships with their classmates.”
William Fry, dean of the faculty, who oversees the Faculty Senate, attended the S.A. meeting last evening. Fry explained that the core issue is the intent of the Median Grade Policy. He explained that this S.A. resolution aims to clarify the original intent of the policy, which was to exclude transfer students.
“Transfers want to be treated equally,” Brokman said, “We don’t think it’s too much to ask to get them the same transcript as everyone else.”