After six years of debate and various renditions of a proposal for a plus/minus grading system, the St. Edward’s University Academic Council approved a proposal on Feb. 2 that would give professors the option to use the more detailed grading system.

“We’re not mandating that the faculty has to adhere to some sort of policy. Professors still have academic freedom,” Russell Frohardt, spokesman for the ad hoc committee on the plus/minus grading system, said.

The proposal passed with a vote of 13 to 5.There were two additional members who abstained.

Before implementation can go into effect, the Board of Trustees will vote on the subject on Feb. 19.

It is probable that the plus/minus system will go into effect Fall 2015 if the Board of Trustees approves it.

The ad hoc committee on the plus/minus grading system has stated that it would under no circumstances support a campus-wide policy change.

The current proposal allows for professor discretion to implement the grading system that each professor sees fit in his or her classroom.

If the Board of Trustees passes the proposal, individual schools, departments or courses with multiple sections may or may not decide to adopt a grading scale policy.

“ We don’t need uniformity university wide. We need uniformity department wide,” council member Edward Early said. “In my opinion it’s the job of the coordinator of whatever course to decide the grading scale.”

Some of the council members are worried that if the new grading system is implemented it will cause frag- mentation and inconsistency across the university.

“It seems a little fractured,” student council member Jonathan Edwards said.“We should be on the same page as a university community.”