(Editor’s Note:This is the second part of a three-part series examining grades from the fall 1997 semester.)

A rigorous curriculum has proven beneficial to one college and damaging to another, according to a summary of fall semester grades.

When this data is released, colleges all over campus begin evaluating their results as well as the results of those who have been successful and those who are having difficulty.

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The College of Education led all colleges in the number of A’s doled out to students. Forty-six percent of their on-campus grades were A’s.

Nancy Quisenberry, dean of the College of Education, said two factors played a part in its ranking.

We have clear objectives. We have standards that are set and we expect our students to meet them, Quisenberry said.

She said the nature of the college also plays a big part in the number of A’s.

In comparison to a lot of the other colleges on campus, we’re more of a professional school, Quisenberry said. By that I mean, our students are generally juniors and seniors, they’re not the freshmen or sophomores across the board.

Quisenberry said by the time students get to the College of Education, they have already completed their core courses and are starting on their major. The College of Education has only two courses that are University core curriculum.

Quisenberry said the village of people that the College of Education employ all play a part in its success.

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It takes a whole village, in a way we apply that whole village concept by department to looking at and watching how our students are prospering, she said.

Norma Ewing, associate dean for the College of Education, said the grade results reflect their instructor’s dedication and helps their retention rate.

I certainly think that the way the professors go about doing business in the COE certainly is an enhancement to the efforts to retention, Ewing said. Once students have met that certain GPA they have already proven themselves in a sense. So what we have to do is to continue to nurture the growth and development of a student.

Quisenberry said this study should show undecided students the difficulty of the College of Education curriculum and hopes that those students make sure they know what they want to do.

We don’t want to be put into a position of either counseling out turning away students who come here planning to be teachers and then finding out that they have wasted some time trying to find out if they can do it, she said.

Quisenberry encourages undecided students to talk to a college’s advisors before they choose a major.

Joe Foote, dean of the College of Mass Communication and Media Arts, said the school has a history of tough grading.

There’s been a long tradition here of rigorous grading in the three departments in the college, Foote said. And I think that is the most responsible for it all. The faculty understand that you have to have standards. That’s been handed down from faculty to faculty.

He said most people do not see MCMA’s majors as difficult.

Certainly the public perception is not that it would be the most rigorous, Foote said. Yet, these are not majors you go to to inflate your grade point average.

We’re not trying to have the highest standards on campus, it just happens that way.

Foote said MCMA leads the retention battle and it is a hard job to make sure the toughness does not chase people out of the college.

It’s a very careful balancing act, he said. You want students to succeed.

Our faculty would like to see higher admission standards, but we’re not in a position right now to do that so we take students who qualify generally for the University’s admission requirements. There is balance to achieve and we don’t want to go too far either way. You have to be sensitive to that.

MCMA also recorded 14 percent D’s and F’s, second behind the College of Science with 18 percent.

The School of Journalism was the toughest school within MCMA. Thirty percent of the grades given were A’s and B’s, 12 percent D’s and F’s, and 39 percent received incomplete grades.

If we’re giving a lot of D’s and F’s, it shows failure of us as well as the students, Foote said. Any department that fails the majority of its people is the faculty and administration’s fault, not just the students.

John Jackson, provost and vice chancellor for Academic Affairs, said that with studies like this an average is formulated and that opens the door for many criticisms.

Everybody wants to wonder about why you’re off the average, he said. There’s nothing magical about the average but it’s still something that we sort of look at and worry about. I think our faculty don’t have to be completely giving away grades. I think we ought to have standards.

Jackson said undecided students should look at the big picture when it comes to deciding on a major.

The undecided student needs to do what I’ve encouraged students to do for years and that is think about what you want to do for the rest of your life and think about career and what you enjoy and what you might want to commit for years to, Jackson said.

Foote said a key to solving the high failure rate is giving attention to those who need it.

We need to make sure on the other end that we’re giving help to students and that we’re not just handing out D’s and F’s just getting rid of people but we’re helping students who are in academic difficulty.

(The final part of this series will appear in the Daily Egyptian Monday and explore grade point averages in the special emphasis floors in University Housing.)