To the Editor:
The potential imposition of a plus/minus grading system on students already attending Brown or already committed to coming here (e.g. early decision admits to the class of '10) is plainly unacceptable. The New Curriculum grading system is unique to Brown and played a vital role in attracting many of those who would be affected by the change, should it be enacted immediately.
Dean Armstrong's assertion that this aspect of the grading system is not as vital to the "spirit of the New Curriculum" as its other elements - on the basis of what appear to be purely practical concerns with its implementation - is without merit. It offends those of us who chose to come here on the basis of a grading system that was presented alongside other elements of the New Curriculum as part of what makes Brown special.
Few students can imagine being comfortable with the establishment of distribution requirements at Brown, especially if those requirements took immediate effect, even if a majority of their peers and professors spontaneously discovered personally convincing rationales for such requirements. The same is true of as major a change to the curriculum as the addition of pluses and minuses. I came to Brown with the understanding that I would be receiving grades of A, B, C, S or the non-transcribed NC, with no additional annotations. This was not, as it might be for other schools, an insignificant detail but an essential part of why I chose Brown. The University must take that into consideration when determining whether and how to implement a new grading system.
Matthew Gelfand '08Jan. 30
