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It is fair to say that if one attends a college, he or she is attending to do their very best, no matter if the grading scale is based on a full letter grade, or a plus/minus grade system.

But at a community college, a place where the students are diverse in their paths to success – be it the student who couldn’t afford to go to U.C. Berkeley or the student whose grades simply didn’t make the cut for Berkeley – it would be not only unfair, but harmful to let those who do their best and are a few points away from an A+ suffer by lowering their grade point average (GPA).

PCC is ranked in the top ten of the state for the most associate transfer degrees (ATD), according to Dean of Counseling Cynthia Olivo. To transfer out to a CSU, however, the minimum GPA with an ATD is 2.8.

Let’s say a student whose B average grades were to stay on the full letter scale, he or she would be able to transfer a CSU with a 3.0, according to a presentation given by history Instructor Susy Ling at an Academic Senate meeting in January.

But if the plus/minus system were implemented, and that student with a B average received 79 percent in a few classes, his or her GPA would drop below the required 2.8 to transfer. That student would be stuck at PCC.

With the administration constantly speaking about how transfer rates are abysmal (last semester fewer than 700 students transferred to CSUs, according to Director of Institutional Effectiveness Crystal Kollross) and need to go up, it simply is counterproductive for the college to switch over to a plus/minus grade system.

Yes, the A + students will get their 4.0, and the B + students will get their 3.0 and all the glory that goes along with it, but for those students who are at a community college for a better chance at higher education, and for an administration that needs to really work on transfer rates, it would be wise to shelve a plus/minus grading system and stick to what works.

After all, if it isn’t broken, don’t fix it.

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