By Chavez                                             H.R. No. 1093
         76R17135 JLZ-D                           
                                 R E S O L U T I O N
 1-1           WHEREAS, In a highly competitive employment market where an
 1-2     increasing number of job openings require a bachelor's degree or
 1-3     even an advanced degree, a college grade point average (GPA) can
 1-4     make a crucial difference when a student is vying for a high-paying
 1-5     job or seeking admission to a prestigious graduate school or
 1-6     postgraduate program, or simply when attempting to enroll in
 1-7     upper-division courses within an already chosen field of study, and
 1-8     earnest students who wish to improve or maintain a high GPA may
 1-9     need to retake one or more courses in hopes of attaining better
1-10     grades; and
1-11           WHEREAS, There is, however, no uniform statewide policy
1-12     governing how institutions calculate overall GPAs in circumstances
1-13     of course repetition, and some institutions use the higher grade in
1-14     lieu of the lower grade, regardless of which grade the student
1-15     earned first, while others use the later grade to replace the
1-16     earlier grade, even if the later grade is lower than the earlier
1-17     grade; and still other institutions include both grades, thus
1-18     mathematically diluting the effect of any improvement in
1-19     performance and reducing the incentive to work toward better
1-20     scholastic results; and
1-21           WHEREAS, By some of these policies, some institutions
1-22     actually short-change students who wish to improve their academic
1-23     records and, consequently, those students' prospects for later
1-24     success; and
 2-1           WHEREAS, The lack of uniformity is particularly worthy of
 2-2     concern given the frequency of student transfers between Texas'
 2-3     state-funded institutions of post-secondary learning; and
 2-4           WHEREAS, With the impact of rulings by federal courts in the
 2-5     recent Hopwood case, and the continuing need to recruit and retain
 2-6     ethnic minority students in Texas' network of higher education
 2-7     campuses so as to more closely reflect the state's diverse
 2-8     demographics, any policy which has the direct or indirect effect of
 2-9     mathematically diluting a student's true and actual record of
2-10     academic achievement is clearly inappropriate and should be
2-11     revised; and
2-12           WHEREAS, Because Texas residents' college education is
2-13     largely subsidized by the state with some of the lowest tuition
2-14     rates in the nation, it would be fair for the student to bear some
2-15     of the financial costs of repeating a course in the form of a
2-16     reasonable additional fee, but it is most important to create a
2-17     uniform policy for calculating the grade point averages of students
2-18     who repeat courses that is applicable to all students and that does
2-19     not act as a disincentive for enhanced learning; and
2-20           WHEREAS, Students who repeat courses are committed to their
2-21     higher education and their academic achievement, and it is in the
2-22     best interest of this state not to minimize their efforts; now,
2-23     therefore, be it
2-24           RESOLVED, That the House of Representatives of the 76th Texas
2-25     Legislature hereby direct its Committee on Higher Education to
2-26     conduct a study of the calculation of student grade point averages
2-27     at public colleges and universities and of additional and modest
 3-1     fees that may be assessed on students who retake certain classes,
 3-2     as well as considering the most equitable manner of determining the
 3-3     number of credit hours to be accrued for repeating a particular
 3-4     course and whether a superceded grade should be expunged, or be
 3-5     retained, on the student's transcript; and, be it further
 3-6           RESOLVED, That the committee specifically study the effect on
 3-7     a student's GPA of repeating an undergraduate course, the various
 3-8     methods for determining which of the multiple grades earned for the
 3-9     same course is to be factored in the calculation of such
3-10     averages--provided that the content of the course has not changed
3-11     significantly since it was first undertaken--and the adoption of
3-12     uniform policies applicable to all students at each institution;
3-13     and, be it further
3-14           RESOLVED, That the committee also study the feasibility and
3-15     impact of allowing public colleges and universities to charge
3-16     additional and modest fees for any courses that a student takes
3-17     more than once; and, be it further
3-18           RESOLVED, That the committee submit a full report, including
3-19     findings and recommendations, to the Texas House of Representatives
3-20     of the 77th Texas Legislature when it convenes in January 2001.