English professor Dan Embree continues his service as chair of the Holland Faculty Senate, while associate professor Ladonne Delgado of Mitchell Memorial Library again is the advisory body's secretary.

Neither incumbent faced opposition April 20 at the senate's designated time for selection of 2001-02 year officers. There is a change from last year's leadership triumvirate, however.

Professor Walter J. Diehl III of Biological Sciences is the new vice chair. He was the only candidate nominated to replace Louis R. D'Abramo of Wildlife and Fisheries, who is completing a seven-year senate term, the last two as vice chair.

Following officer selection, the campus representatives turned their attention to a special committee report on grading standards. After wide-ranging debate and two successful "friendly" amendments to fine-tune the wording, the committee recommendations were approved 33-5.

The special committee of seven senate and non-senate members was formed in December after Provost and Vice President for Academic Affairs David Cole requested a senate study of "the problem of grade inflation."

Embree, who chaired the committee, said the group purposefully delayed gathering until after a March 3 Senate Roundtable between faculty members and university administrators also had discussed the topic.

With the delay, committee members had the advantage of "build(ing) upon the roundtable's own discussion of MSU grading standards," Embree said. As a result, members decided to set aside the question of grade inflation "in favor of the question of grading standards," he added.

"The committee thought that bringing about more consistent grading from professor to professor and from department to department would be a major step toward bringing about more consistent [university] grading from year to year," Embree said.

The group's report said "disproportionately high grades result from a lack of consensus among professors about what letter grades actually represent—not in the abstract but in particular courses, with particular syllabi and particular objectives and requirements. There currently is no formal or required process or forum in which professors in a discipline routinely discuss, (or indeed, even know) [committee parentheses] the grades given by their colleagues."

In approving the four recommendations, senators requested that Provost Cole:

—Direct the Office of Planning, Evaluation and Institutional Effectiveness to prepare annual grade summaries displaying the following data by course and professor: number of A's, B's, C's, D's, F's, and W's; grade-point averages; number of students for each of the previous three years; and grade-point averages for each of the previous three years. When compiled, the information is to be distributed to every member of each academic department.

—Direct all department heads to conduct annual meetings with their faculties, and all academic deans to conduct annual meetings with their department heads, to review and discuss the annual grade summaries. Each level of administration then is to report the results of these discussions to the provost.

—Institute pass/fail grading for practicum courses and cooperative programs.

—Direct that consistent and relevant grading practices be a standard topic in the overall assessment of teaching performances in annual reviews.

A complete summary of these and other business matters conducted at the April meeting is available on the Internet at the Holland Faculty Senate home page. It can be reached via www.msstate.edu, then by clicking on the "Academic Programs" icon and scrolling to "Organizations."