The Lawsuit....(update!)

I know, I know - I said no more blogs on this, but I had a few people contact me requesting information on this issue, and so - I guess if I keep it civil it'll be ok....

So there it is...

And I don't have an attorney....

Not my preferred result, but I don't have $5,000 to drop on a lawyer. Why don't I just let it go? Let CWSL continue with their jacked up grading policy? Accept your C- average and deal with it? If this was only about their arbitrary grading policy, I could probably let it go. But, remember - I'm also being charged $12,000 due to their academically dismissing me. I took out loans for my summer classes. Some of that loan money got put towards rent, bills, etc. So now after I get dismissed, they want that money back. I DON'T HAVE IT ANYMORE!! That's the part that REALLY irks me. I didn't ASKED to get dismissed, or ask that you wait to release my grades until I took out the loans and started the summer semester.

Normally, I'd be fine with just letting them go on with their unfair grading scales, but I just cannot swallow $12,000.

The complaint says it all:

cwsl complaint.pdf

Download PDF • 232KB

Whatever the outcome, guys, keep this chart handy: It's what your grades SHOULD be:

Scale 1 is the professors score for you....scale 2 is the conversion. LINEAR TRANSFORMATION is what it should be with every 1.0 increment in the professor's score equalling 0.108 in the GPA score. Everything proportional. PUBLISHED RESULTS is the arbitrary results the REGISTRAR'S OFFICE uses to adjust your grades.

UPDATE

I think I finally have an understandable way to show that 1) their math is wrong and 2) they're required to do the math the right way....

OK. Chapter VI in the Student Handbook states:

6.01 GRADES GENERALLY

Once the grade for a course has been reported to the Registrar by an instructor, that grade may not be changed absent a mathematical error or other mistake which does not constitute a re-evaluation or change in a judgmental decision. 

When the instructor submits a grade to the Registrar's Office it is on a scale from 50-95, yet when the GPA's appear it's in a 0.00-4.33 range. The grade's been changed. ("But that's the GPA, not the grades!")

ok, fine, check this then....

If a student was taking just one class worth a single credit and the instructor decided that this student was very average, exactly in the middle of a minimum and maximum score. The student gets a 72.5. (50+95)/2 = 72.5. This is the grade that gets sent to the Registrar's office.

In order to get the GPA the Registrar multiplies by 1 (# of credits of the class) and divides by 1 (total # of credits in the semester) to get 72.5. Then the Registrar seeks to change this number to a number between 0.00-4.33. THEY CANNOT CHANGE THE GRADE, HOWEVER! But, we allow the grade change, BECAUSE WE ASSUME IT WILL BE CHANGED PROPORTIONATELY! We wouldn't allow the 72.5 to get changed into a 4.33 by the Registrar's office, but if the grade has the same amount of power, clout, etc. behind it - we are prepared to allow it.

So that exact halfway point on the 4.33 scale is 2.165. (4.33+0)/2 = 2.165. Then we can expect 72.5 to equal 2.165. Since my 73.9 is higher than 72.5., my GPA should be higher than 2.165. But the Student Handbook states that 69.00-73.99 = 1.46-1.99. Nowhere near the right amount.

This shows that CalWestern ignores their own policies by changing grades once submitted to the Registrar's Office, and they do so in a way which greatly affects students grades in a negative way.