University of Virginia Library

Grade Reports

Have you ever noticed that the report of
your semester grades goes to your parents
while the bill for the next semester always
finds its way to your Charlottesville address?
Of course, the result in most cases is
communication between the parents and their
son or daughter concerning the new term's
price tab and the debacle in the classroom
from the previous semester. The student
prefers to dwell on the money side while the
parents fixate on the grades, grades that the
student often has not seen until his parents
disclose the report's contents.

Not only since the bill goes to the student,
but also because the student was the one who
had to work in his courses, a copy of the
semester grade report should be sent directly
to him. An additional copy could be sent to
the parents since most of them finance their
offspring's undergraduate education and since
the University seems to be concerned to keep
them on the job pressuring Junior to burn the
midnight study oil.

There are practical reasons why the
student should receive a report of his grades
besides the fact that he is responsible for
them. Occasionally there is some bureaucratic
bungling or computer short circuiting which
causes mistakes to appear in the record.
Parents will often not understand or not
inform the student of the mistake, because
they just do not realize that a mistake has
been made. The result usually is wasted time
spent at the Registrar's or the Dean's Office
trying to right the wrong.

When students have requested in the past
that they receive a copy of their grades at the
end of a term, the standard reply has been
that the students can always take a little time
to walk around the Grounds discovering their
final grades by reading the posted lists.
However, there are a considerable number of
courses in which the grades are never posted.
This year grades do not even have to be made
known to the candidates for degrees by the
instructor.

Finally we do not think that it is exactly
fair or the best situation for the student to
learn of a poor grade from his irate parents. It
seems to us that some of the strain and a lot
of the uncertainty could be dissipated by
sending the student a copy of his grades.