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UNCLASSIFIED

inter French Tutor for Month of May. Phone Anne 988-8088

French Immers

Former mayor speaks

Marion Dewar, former three-time mayor of

the French for elementary school

one is in

No more health on campus

The Health Services department will be closed for nearly four months—they lock

contact Al Oberndorf, local 560.

ing in

their doors May 1 and will not be back not. Upper Lonsdale area in North Van.

until Monday, August 25. For first aid in

NEEDED Ottawa and President of the Federal NDP

245 hours on Monday and on one other day. $12 an hour if you have experience, $9 i will be speaking at the St. Andrews United

Coach children: in May I shall be away and I need

a substitute to teach three children extra

French ( Church Auditorium on May 1. For more info

ted and the All

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More exhibits

The photography exhibit, "A Rainy Day in

held r Opulence Studio, 55 Lonsdale. The show

continues to April 25 and can be seen in

ing

Craft show on Lonsdale is be

the upstairs Opulence Studio. Grads display “Heartwork” Media Centre until April 28. AD THIS ‘ READ THIS %&

The Commercial Art graduating class is

Vancouver Town" continues College Lounge until April 25. Meanwhile,

An exhibition of printed woven fabrics, stoneware and raku by our

holding an exhibition at the Community Arts Council Gallery, 837 Davie St. from May 6 to 17. Entitled "Heartworks", the

display will be open from 10 am to 8 pm. the Studio Art and Art Institute students have work on display at the Robson Square

Craft Students

University of Victoria

THe RING Aran 4, (486

Grading disparities questioned in Senate

An analysis of four years of grades given to undergraduate students at UVic reveals a wide disparity in grading practices among academic units on campus,

A report on grading practices and scholarships was presented to the Senate at the March 5 meeting by Dr. Reg Mitchell (Chemistry), chairman of the committee on awards, who expres- sed the hope that “Senate won’t, as usual, bury its head in the sand and do nothing whenever anything controver- sial arises”.

“The committee believes the varia- tions in grading are too large and that this is something the university should be concerned about,” said Mitchell.

The report points out that the percen- tage of first-class grades in lower level courses ranged from 8.1 per cent in His- tory to 45 per cent in Music. In upper level courses,the range is even greater: 64 per cent for Social and Natural Sciences in the Faculty of Education to 11 per cent for Law.

In presenting the report, Mitchell said he personally did not see how anyone could defend a system “where one department gives more than 50 per cent A grades while another department gives only 10 per cent A grades.”

After some senators expressed “shock” at the report, it was sent to the committee on academic standards which, in conjunction with the deans, will study it further, determine if there is a need for further action and report back to the Senate by September.

“The three deans in Arts and Science are well aware of the problem,” said Dr. Louis Costs (Psychology), Dean of Arts and Science. “It is a very complicated one and we hope to get more information on the issue of grading practices at the upcoming conference of western deans.”

He pointed out that the analysis is for the years 1981 through 1984. “We have

been concerned and the percentage of first-class grades in Social and Natural Sciences has gone down since then.”

Prof. Donald Harvey, chairman of the Department of Visual Arts, said that itis extremely difficult for any department which gives higher grades than most in the university to change its grading practices. “We would appreciate advice on this.”

Within most faculties and academic areas there is a considerable variation in grading practices. Mitchell said such variations meant that some students were at an unfair disadvantage when it came to the top scholarships. “Accor- ding to the statistics, students in Politi- cal Science and Health Information Science really don’t have a chance to gain a top scholarship because virtually no A plus grades are given out in these departments.”

In the Faculty of Human and Social Dvelopment the percentage of first-class grades ranged from 41.8 per cent in Social Work to 22 per cent in Health Information Science.

In Education the percentage ranged from 54.1 per cent in Social and Natural Sciences to 26 per cent in Physical Education.

In Fine Arts, 51.8 per cent of grades in Music were first-class while 25.8 per cent of grades in Theatre were first class.

The percentage of first-class grades in the Humanities ranged from 40 per cent in Linguistics to 13.1 per cent in English. In the Social Sciences, Psychology gave the highest percentage of first-class grades, 26.1 per cent, while only 12.7 per cent of grades in Political Science were first class.

Within the Sciences, Biology gave the highest percentage of first-class grades, 21.5 per cent, while the lowest percen- tage of first-class grades were given in Chemistry, 14.7 per cent.