Despite student concerns, changes to the plus/minus grading system won’t be coming through any time soon, members of the Curriculum Committee of the University Council decided Friday.

The Student Government Association’s proposed change would standardize a grade of C-minus as a passing grade for progression in a major. As the system stands today, each department has a different standard for what passes in a major class.

“Students time and time again have voiced their concerns to student government about how, depending on their major, or depending on their department even, a C-minus could count in one instance and not count in another instance,” Cameron Secord, vice president of SGA, told the committee.

C-minuses accounted for 1.5 percent of last spring’s grades.

“We just want to standardize the grading policy of the University and make it so that everyone has an even playing field,” said Laura Wynn, director of academic affairs for SGA.

Secord gave the example of one student who had majors in both Terry College of Business and the College of Family and Consumer Sciences. This student made a C-minus in a course required for both majors. Family and Consumer Sciences accepted the grade for progression in the major, but Terry required a grade of C or better.

“She decided not to go forward with [the Terry] major,” Secord said.

He also said students experience confusion when the Board of Regents calculates averages for the HOPE scholarship. The regents count a C-minus as a C when they determine HOPE eligibility.

The committee decided to discuss the C-minus issue further and make a decision at a later meeting.

But SGA will continue to work on their proposal.

“What we would like to do is to follow up with faculty members on the committee as well as re-examine the solutions that our aspirational institutions have adopted, and see what we can learn from that and hopefully reformat our proposal,” Secord said.

Some faculty members said the committee needed to address other elements of the plus/minus system before the student government proposal could come to a vote.

“One of the things we talked about a long time ago when we first passed the plus/minus was to actually do away with the C-minus,” said Scott Weinberg, a committee member from the College of Environment and Design. “We actually talked about it for a good number of meetings, and we decided to wait a while.”

Weinberg said the committee should make a decision about maintaining or doing away with the C-minus before moving forward with the student government proposal.

But Senior Vice President for Academic Affairs and Provost Arnett Mace cautioned the committee about approaching the Board of Regents with any changes at this time.

“If we start changing the approval we have from the Board of Regents on the plus/minus system, we are opening a can of worms that we may not wish to open,” Mace told the committee.

As for SGA, Secord said they are open to any possible solutions.

“We’re willing to consider all options that help bring clarity and equity to this current inconsistency,” he said. “When we meet with the faculty members of the committee to look into other possible solutions, [doing away with the C-minus] will be one we discuss.”