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The Brown and White Vol. 130 No. 22 Tuesday, May 3, 2016 ‘All the Lehigh News First’ Grade curves decided by professors, not registrar By CATHERINE MANTHORP B&W Staff Grade curving, which is the prac-tice of scoring exams based the rel-ative exam scores of students in the class, is used by professors at Lehigh. While a bell curve is the tradition-al method of grade curving, some professors add points to students’ grades in alternative forms. Cameron Wesson, the associate dean of the College of Arts and Sciences, said Lehigh Registrar Emil Gnasso does not curve any scores received in any courses. Grade curves also are not governed by the college or university. He said if professors chooses to curve, they must do so in a fair manner. Wesson said there is no standard practice or policy regarding curving within the college. He said curving is applied on a professor-by-professor basis, so it is a personal decision. Some professors choose to curve and some do not. “The grades belong to the faculty member who’s teaching the course,” Wesson said. He said each of Lehigh’s depart- Proposed building to add student housing ments could have their own policy on curving if they wanted. Gnasso wrote in an email that some departments have policies on curving and others do not. For the departments that lack their own policies on curving, Wesson said individual professors within the department can each have their own policy on whether they curve and how they curve. He said there is no mandate from anyone that curves are good or bad, nor that curves should or should not be applied. Wei-Min Huang, the chair of the math-ematics department, and David Vicic, the chair of the chemistry department, wrote in emails that neither department within the College of Arts and Sciences has a specific pol-icy on curving. Vicic said individual professors are free to curve as they see necessary as long as the curves are appropriate and fair. David Johnson, the associate chair of the mathematics department, wrote in an email that when he started teaching at Lehigh in 1984, students did not register for partic-ular sections of a course. Instead, he said the registrar assigned stu-dents to sections based on the list of courses they provided. He said this made consistency and similarity even more important across sections within a course. Johnson added that 4 o’clock exams guarantee uni-formity because students take the same exam at the same time. Johnson said grading is also uniform, with the entire staff of a given course dividing up each exam and assign-ing specific graders to specific prob-lems, which the assigned graders grade on every student’s test. He said homework and quiz grading are more individualized, but the depart-ment still works to ensure there is uniformity in the averages of those assignments. Johnson said the department assigns each course to a professor who is considered the course coordi-nator. He said the coordinator’s job is to agree on the syllabus, schedule, assignments and exams with other faculty members within the course. He said some things, such as teach-ing styles and timing, vary between professors and sections, but the rules and expectations for all students tak-ing the course are the same. Johnson said the department usu-ally designs exams so there is no need for a curve. “The reason for that is primarily so that students really know where they stand in the course,” he wrote in an email. Johnson said that does not always mean average scores are between 75 and 80. He said each exam is com-pared to what was given the previous semester and a certain performance standard has to be met for each. He said the courses that do curve usu-ally do so at the end of the course rather than on individual exams. By RAPHAEL KHALLOUQI B&W Staff Dennis Benner, ’76, a real estate developer in the Bethlehem area, has proposed the construction of new apartments for Lehigh students in the city’s south side. Benner is seek-ing city approval to build a 13-story building at the intersection of West Fourth and Vine streets, across from popular student destinations such as Blue Sky Café, Sotto Santi and the Goose. Although the apartments and their construction are not affiliated with Lehigh, such joint ventures are commonplace at several schools across the country. The target demo-graphic is set to be exclusively stu-dents. Benner owns the buildings on the block and plans to demolish them to make room for the new apartment building, which will have the capaci-ty to house up to 29 Lehigh students per floor and 348 total. The exterior façade of the First United Church of Christ, however, will be preserved and will serve as an entryway to the apartments and include an outdoor common area. The remainder of the bottom floor of the apartments is planned to house three retail spaces, a restaurant and a nightclub. There will be two four-bedroom units, two three-bedroom units, seven two-bedroom units and one single-bedroom unit offered on each of the building’s 12 residential floors. Each bedroom will have its own bathroom. The proposal has undergone archi-tectural review and is being pre-pared for submission to Bethlehem’s Bureau of Planning and Zoning. Because this process can be lengthy, there is, as of yet, no definite planned start date for construction. Benner, along with his two sons, Courtesy of Dennis Benner A new building on the South Side would provide housing for Lehigh students. Dennis Benner, ’76, proposed the building and is waiting for approval from Bethlehem’s Bureau of Planning and Zoning. See HOUSING Page 3 Liz Cornell/B&W Staff See CURVE Page 4 Students will assess the economic viability of a proposed 348-student apartment building on Bethlehem’s south side
Object Description
Title | Brown and White Vol. 130 no. 22 |
Date | 2016-05-03 |
Month | 05 |
Day | 03 |
Year | 2016 |
Volume | 130 |
Issue | 22 |
Type | Newspaper |
Source Repository | Lehigh University |
Coverage | United States, Pennsylvania, Lehigh, South Bethlehem |
LCCN | 7019854 |
Source Repository Code | LYU |
Digital Responsible Institution | Lehigh University |
Digital Responsible Institution Code | LYU |
Issue/Edition Pattern | Semiweekly |
Title Essay | Published twice a week during the college year by the students of Lehigh University |
Description
Title | Page 1 |
Date | 2016-05-03 |
FullText | The Brown and White Vol. 130 No. 22 Tuesday, May 3, 2016 ‘All the Lehigh News First’ Grade curves decided by professors, not registrar By CATHERINE MANTHORP B&W Staff Grade curving, which is the prac-tice of scoring exams based the rel-ative exam scores of students in the class, is used by professors at Lehigh. While a bell curve is the tradition-al method of grade curving, some professors add points to students’ grades in alternative forms. Cameron Wesson, the associate dean of the College of Arts and Sciences, said Lehigh Registrar Emil Gnasso does not curve any scores received in any courses. Grade curves also are not governed by the college or university. He said if professors chooses to curve, they must do so in a fair manner. Wesson said there is no standard practice or policy regarding curving within the college. He said curving is applied on a professor-by-professor basis, so it is a personal decision. Some professors choose to curve and some do not. “The grades belong to the faculty member who’s teaching the course,” Wesson said. He said each of Lehigh’s depart- Proposed building to add student housing ments could have their own policy on curving if they wanted. Gnasso wrote in an email that some departments have policies on curving and others do not. For the departments that lack their own policies on curving, Wesson said individual professors within the department can each have their own policy on whether they curve and how they curve. He said there is no mandate from anyone that curves are good or bad, nor that curves should or should not be applied. Wei-Min Huang, the chair of the math-ematics department, and David Vicic, the chair of the chemistry department, wrote in emails that neither department within the College of Arts and Sciences has a specific pol-icy on curving. Vicic said individual professors are free to curve as they see necessary as long as the curves are appropriate and fair. David Johnson, the associate chair of the mathematics department, wrote in an email that when he started teaching at Lehigh in 1984, students did not register for partic-ular sections of a course. Instead, he said the registrar assigned stu-dents to sections based on the list of courses they provided. He said this made consistency and similarity even more important across sections within a course. Johnson added that 4 o’clock exams guarantee uni-formity because students take the same exam at the same time. Johnson said grading is also uniform, with the entire staff of a given course dividing up each exam and assign-ing specific graders to specific prob-lems, which the assigned graders grade on every student’s test. He said homework and quiz grading are more individualized, but the depart-ment still works to ensure there is uniformity in the averages of those assignments. Johnson said the department assigns each course to a professor who is considered the course coordi-nator. He said the coordinator’s job is to agree on the syllabus, schedule, assignments and exams with other faculty members within the course. He said some things, such as teach-ing styles and timing, vary between professors and sections, but the rules and expectations for all students tak-ing the course are the same. Johnson said the department usu-ally designs exams so there is no need for a curve. “The reason for that is primarily so that students really know where they stand in the course,” he wrote in an email. Johnson said that does not always mean average scores are between 75 and 80. He said each exam is com-pared to what was given the previous semester and a certain performance standard has to be met for each. He said the courses that do curve usu-ally do so at the end of the course rather than on individual exams. By RAPHAEL KHALLOUQI B&W Staff Dennis Benner, ’76, a real estate developer in the Bethlehem area, has proposed the construction of new apartments for Lehigh students in the city’s south side. Benner is seek-ing city approval to build a 13-story building at the intersection of West Fourth and Vine streets, across from popular student destinations such as Blue Sky Café, Sotto Santi and the Goose. Although the apartments and their construction are not affiliated with Lehigh, such joint ventures are commonplace at several schools across the country. The target demo-graphic is set to be exclusively stu-dents. Benner owns the buildings on the block and plans to demolish them to make room for the new apartment building, which will have the capaci-ty to house up to 29 Lehigh students per floor and 348 total. The exterior façade of the First United Church of Christ, however, will be preserved and will serve as an entryway to the apartments and include an outdoor common area. The remainder of the bottom floor of the apartments is planned to house three retail spaces, a restaurant and a nightclub. There will be two four-bedroom units, two three-bedroom units, seven two-bedroom units and one single-bedroom unit offered on each of the building’s 12 residential floors. Each bedroom will have its own bathroom. The proposal has undergone archi-tectural review and is being pre-pared for submission to Bethlehem’s Bureau of Planning and Zoning. Because this process can be lengthy, there is, as of yet, no definite planned start date for construction. Benner, along with his two sons, Courtesy of Dennis Benner A new building on the South Side would provide housing for Lehigh students. Dennis Benner, ’76, proposed the building and is waiting for approval from Bethlehem’s Bureau of Planning and Zoning. See HOUSING Page 3 Liz Cornell/B&W Staff See CURVE Page 4 Students will assess the economic viability of a proposed 348-student apartment building on Bethlehem’s south side |
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