“After hearing many people’s thoughts on adding the A+, we are against it, especially if there is no GPA incentive to go with it. Not only does it decrease the value of an A in the eyes of grad schools and companies that see your transcript, it also can be extremely detrimental to student mental health and wellness, when they are already under an immense pressure to perform academically.
Further, this is a bill geared toward the privileged. In general, students who typically perform well, especially in intro courses, are those that come from highly privileged and affluent areas. Implementing an A+ will cause those students to have a higher likelihood of obtaining the A+ while students who were not exposed to that material before (i.e. rural students, students from high schools with lower graduation rates, students from a lower socioeconomic status, etc.) will have a much lower chance of achieving that higher mark. These students will be severely hurt by this proposal as this will increase the social inequality gap that is already present at universities.
Though these are our personal opinions on the subject, the ACT campaign is fully committed to promoting more dialogue over this topic and truly representing the ideas the student body holds. We are aware that there is a survey currently being sent to students about this matter, and we intend to honor the viewpoints of our fellow students.”