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Low grades could cost UW students

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Also by Blake Anderson and Keegan Kyle:

by Blake Anderson and Keegan Kyle

Friday, January 19, 2007

D’s and F’s could become even more costly for some University of Wisconsin students.

A bill that would penalize UW students receiving state financial aid for getting any grade lower than a C could come before the state Legislature in the near future.

Drafted by Rep. Suzanne Jeskewitz, R-Menomonee Falls, the bill would require students with state-provided grants to reimburse the state for any coursework in which they failed to meet a C standard.

Jeskewitz declined an interview request because she said she is still investigating the proposal. As of press time, the draft is without a co-sponsor and may never reach the Legislature.

Regardless of any possible changes, Mike Mikalsen, a clerk for Rep. Steve Nass, R-Whitewater, who chairs the Colleges and Universities Committee, said he supported the idea behind the bill.

“We all have to take responsibility for our decisions, including how we address our coursework,” Mikalsen said. “And in the work world, the employer pays you a salary and if you don’t reach their expectations, frankly, you might get fired. This is all part of a process that’s getting them ready for the real world.”

Some students are already speaking out against the bill, which in its current form would affect students at all UW System campuses. According to UW-Madison junior Rachel Stong, the concept of penalizing them for low grades is wrong.

“It’s good to encourage people to do well,” Stong said. “But I don’t think it’s fair.”

Stong said her tuition is supported in part by state scholarships, and added she has already come close to falling into the grade range that would be affected by the drafted bill, having received a C in a science class her freshman year that was not required for her major.

“Everyone is going to run into one difficult class,” Stong said.

UW-Madison professor of public affairs and applied economics Andrew Reschovsky said he believes the bill would have little effect on the state’s current financial situation, and added it would be “poor public policy” in general.

“It’s saying if you’re rich you can fail classes, but if you’re poor you need to pay us for doing poorly,” Reschovsky said. “There’s a lot of internal pressure to do well, and the ones doing poorly are usually not doing it by choice.”

Although some such as Stong and Reschovsky lean to the side of opposition, Rep. Scott Suder, R-Abbotsford, said the bill would be beneficial for students and taxpayers alike.

“I think we should set some reasonable standard — if you can’t reach that bar, maybe you should pay back some, or all, of those grants or loans,” Suder said. “There’s no reason why we shouldn’t be asking students to do better.”

To calculate the amount of money paid back, the number of credits for the class in question would be divided by the total number of credits for the semester. The result would then be multiplied by the total financial aid to determine the amount to be reimbursed.

According to the draft, a student who does not pay the calculated amount may have it subtracted from his or her financial aid in the next semester.

Although the general framework for the bill is in place, UW System spokesperson David Giroux pointed out the bill could still undergo several revisions before introduction to the Legislature.

“It’s still in draft form, and it isn’t in a complete enough form,” Giroux said. “I’m sure it will go through many changes.”

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Anonymous (January 19, 2007 @ 2:04pm):

"And in the work world, the employer pays you a salary and if you don't reach their expectations, frankly, you might get fired. This is all part of a process that's getting them ready for the real world."
So, what's the purpose of an education? Is it freedom to make mistakes and learn from them, or is it simply training for a job? Not all learning occurs in the classroom, if at all.
The "real world" has little to do with institutional "academics." Do you think your GPA has significant correlation to actually getting a job? Grades have very little to do with intellect. I wonder what some of most successful people would have to say about getting good grades: Bill Gates, Steve Jobs, Steve Wozniak, Wayne Inouye (Gateway CEO), Michael Dell, William Faulkner, John Steinbeck, Craig Venter (president of the private arm of the human genome project) and our own native, Frank Lloyd Wright, are all lousy college students, most of them dropouts. Life is more than getting good grades and "getting a job."

Anonymous (January 20, 2007 @ 7:32am):

I somewhat agree with the first comment. However, if you're getting lower than C's... maybe college isn't the place for you.

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