Dean Horton follow-up on the Demonstration Policy of the College
On Monday, Dean Horton explained to the Senate that the administration is avidly looking to include student ideas and suggestions in the demonstration policy as the students would be the people most affected by it. The administration is looking for new avenues such as Town Halls and mass Google forms, so the students have an opportunity to voice their opinions and the administration has an opportunity to listen to them. After they gather abundant data which accurately portrays the ideas circulating among the student body the administration will choose representatives from the Senate to help in drafting and editing the document itself.
Dean Velenchik recounts the historical context of the grade policy and its future prospects
After intense debate about the grade policy in the Senate, Dean Velenchik addressed the concerns and questions of the senators and their constituencies by providing a brief overview of why the policy was instituted. She elucidated that the policy was instituted in 2004, after the administration detected two trends among the Wellesley College student body and their academics: there was a rapid growth of grades among the students and many non-humanities departments had the lowest grades among all the departments, which did not accurately represent the attitudes and hard work of the students in those departments. Hence, the grade policy was instituted to increase the “mean average” of those departments, and provide future employers and graduation school admissions representatives credible grades, not devalued ones. Now, many students are questioning the effectiveness of the policy in encouraging collaboration and competition in Wellesley. Dean Velenchik explained that the faculty and staff would fully review the policy in the upcoming months and determine whether it has negatively impacted the students since 2004. Both the Senate and the administration look towards students’ inputs in order to understand the sentiments surrounding the policy.
