Plus/minus grading at UAF

UAF seems set to go to plus/minus grading next fall semester, but I haven't heard much about it. Apparently the faculty voted on it last year.

It seems strange that straight-A students can get a 93 percent in a class next year and see their GPA go down as a result. An A- is 3.7 points, but there is no A+ in the new system.

According to last year's Sun Star report, a C- (1.7) will lose financial aid. You can point to statistics that say this affects a small percentage of students, but to those individuals, the impact – losing aid or graduate school competitiveness – will be tremendous.

It looks like the Sun Star covered it last year, but I'm surprised that student government and journalists aren't putting forth a much more critical examination of the change now that it's imminent.

Intramurals

I would like to play intramural soccer. When I say "I would like to play intramural soccer," I do not mean, "I would like to use the student recreation center to take a semi-public shower, run in ovoids on an indoor track, clamber up an artificial rock, and induce repetitive stress injury using resistive mechanical devices, and also to play intramural soccer." My interest in using the facility is strictly limited to one specific task.

This semester, had I signed up for both intramural soccer sessions, I would have had the opportunity to play in 10 scheduled 40-minute games, for a total of 6.6 hours of possible playing time. The cost of those six hours is $5 for each intramural session, plus the $115 student life fee, an optional fee for part-time students like me. No other fee arrangement is available. Is $20 per hour a reasonable price for playing soccer? It is my hope that a more equitable solution may be found for students who wish, as I do, to scale their involvement in intramural sports.

Sun Star attacks people of faith

This letter is written in regard to a cartoon published in the April 10 edition of the Sun Star. The cartoon I'm referring to depicted a Christian pastor offering a bounty to anyone who killed a homosexual. I believe this cartoon was offensive to the hundreds of Christian students who attend UAF and blatantly perpetuated stereotypes about Christian beliefs.

Would the Sun Star have printed a cartoon characterizing blacks as criminals, Native Alaskans as drunks or women as inferior to men?

I hope not, just like I hope that the Sun Star would refrain from attacking people of faith.

Obviously, some on the staff of the Sun Star have an antagonistic attitude towards Christ, Christians and the values that they live by. Experience has taught me that the only way people can overcome such attitudes is for them to interact with the very people they dislike.

Consequently, I offer an invitation to the editor of the Sun Star and the members of his staff, to attend worship at my church, Journey Christian. We meet Sunday mornings at 10 a.m. at the movie theater. Jeans and T-shirts are the usual uniform and I guarantee that you'll be in and out within 90 minutes. If 10 a.m. is too early, we also do a Thursday night Bible study at 7 p.m. at my pastor's house.

I hope that some of the Sun Star staff will choose to overcome their animosity towards Christians and accept my invitation.