No Asterisks

IN AN ATTEMPT to discourage the growing numbers of students who flock to University Health Services (UHS) each examination period for medical excuses, the Faculty Council last week ruled that starting next fall an asterisk will appear on transcripts to mark courses in which students have taken make-up exams. The Faculty Council adopted the policy, citing the 300 per cent increase over the last five years in the number of students "sicking out"--as taking a medical excuse is called.

But the Council's solution addresses only the superficial issue of abuse of the medical excuse option. It fails to tackle the underlying reason for the trend: increasing grade anxiety among students, especially those competing for admission to professional schools. Marking transcripts will not ease pre-professional pressures, but instead only add to the worries of students.

The Council argues the policy will not hurt any student who is genuinely ill, because a senior tutor could explain the reason for a medical excuse in a letter appended to a student's transcript. But often the reasons behind a sick-out--though legitimate--are not as simply explained as a broken leg or German Measles. Undergraduates who ask for excuses because of personal problems or serious mental distress might not want to advertise these private matters in a letter that will go into their permanent University record.

IN ORDER TO RELIEVE the pressures that drive students to use the sick-out, the University should form a policy which shifts the weighting of grades away from final exams to overall course-work. This approach could partially defuse the threat posed by final exams, and might also encourage students to keep up with their courses through the term.

The Council, in fact, considered grading reform as a possible solution when it reviewed alternatives last month, but rejected it in favor of transcript tampering. Perhaps they should think again.