When Professor Anne Yeagle offered an extra credit assignment to students, she didn’t expect the whirlwind that came with it.
Yeagle, who is teaching three intensive economics courses this summer, offered her students a maximum of 10 extra credit points for collecting $100 for a charity?an opportunity that allowed students to boost their final grade by a full letter.
“I thought it was a win-win situation. The students got the chance for extra credit that they had asked for, and it is something I can deal with volume-wise,” Yeagle said.
She limited each student’s donation to $20. The rest had to come from other sources. A total of 150 points are available in the course. Each $10 a student raised would add one point to that student’s grade.
However, students in the class have questioned the ethics of Yeagle’s extra credit project.
“It seems like a noble cause, but not a noble means. I spent half an hour with a friend calculating how much money it would take for her to go from a B- to an A-. We figured that it would take $70,” said one student, who wished to remain anonymous, fearing academic retribution.
Katharine Coles, President of the Academic Senate, argues that extra credit is something that should only be reserved for special circumstances.
“It seems to me that if [Yeagle] had asked students to design a fundraiser from the ground up and then graded them on how well they organized it, the project would apply to the class. To be based solely on an amount of money is inappropriate,” Coles said.
According to both Coles and U General Counsel John Morris, the U does not have any formal written policy that deals with this situation.
In her semester-long courses, Yeagle gives students the option of earning extra credit by doing service, either through the Bennion Center or on their own. However, Yeagle said the shortened course doesn’t allow her to set up a community service project in five weeks.
“In every single class we talk about poverty and the redistribution of wealth. I tell students that sometimes studying economics is a bummer, and sometimes it helps to do something,” Yeagle said.
The money will go to the North Carolina-based charity Carolina for Kibera, which funds projects to improve an area in Kenya known as one of the world’s largest slums.
Yeagle said she made it clear in each class that if students had a problem with earning extra credit through donations they could talk to her.
“I’m fair, and I’m also very opinionated. I want students to come forward, and we can work out a different project. It’s clear that any opinion they have would never come into play in a grade. I would never violate that,” she said.
Tammy Pelton, a junior in Yeagle’s economics 1060 class, objected to the extra credit option. She, along with four other students, viewed it as a means by which students could buy their grades. According to Pelton, four other students advocated the extra credit project, while the remaining five to seven students voiced no opinion.
Yeagle plans to discuss the issue in class this week.
“My intent is not to upset people, but now that I put the extra credit offer out there, I’d like to honor it,” Yeagle said. “This issue has taken up so much time and energy in the classroom. This is the first time that I have done anything like this, and it will definitely be the last.”