Oakland recently decided to change our grading scale from a point based system to letter grades through a student congress-led initiative. While originally seen as a beneficial idea to the student body, numerous majors have been negatively affected by the change. Due to poor planning, communication, and execution many students have noticed their grades rounded down significantly for work that would have earned them significantly higher grades on the old scale.

The grading scale went from a 0-4.0 scale to letter grades at the beginning of the Fall 2018 semester. The 3 highest grades are an A, A-, and B+ which translate respectively to a 4.0, 3.7, and 3.3.  Professors were not instructed by the administration on how to implement this grading scale change, they were simply told to update their syllabus. For many classes, this change resulted in the same grading scale as before, except the three highest values being an A (4.0), A- (3.7), and B+ (3.3) which rounds down any scores found between those values. Students are receiving grades that no longer accurately represent the work put into a class. This is not fair to the students, as some courses have close to 100% as an A and a B+ (3.3) as high as a 92%. A student shouldn’t have their grade in a class rounded from a 3.6 down to a 3.3 if their work is higher quality.

This will have a serious effect on the ability for future graduates from Oakland to be competitive for scholarships, competitive graduate programs, future careers, and staying in the Honor’s College. This plan has hurt both the students and the University's reputation. While the administration at Oakland has listened to numerous complaints, no action is being taken to fix the problem.

Students shouldn’t have be rounded down for their efforts, sign the petition to let OU know that the grading scale isn’t working.