Associated Students, Inc. sent a resolution to the Chancellor’s office protesting an executive order that forbids students from retaking courses in which they received an unsatisfactory grade.

Under Executive Order 1037, implemented by the Chancellor Charles Reed’s Office, students are only allowed to repeat a course in which they received a grade of C or lower.

According to the ASI resolution protesting the course restrictions, the Chancellor’s order hinders students who want to pursue rigorous graduate programs but fail to earn the high grades to enter those schools.

ASI Executive Vice President Roberto Torres said it hurts students like himself who do not have the guidance to earn grades for graduate school.

“In order to get into a good graduate program you need to be as competitive as you can,” Torres said. “In order to be competitive, sometimes you need to repeat courses.”

The California State Students Association has also voted to oppose the executive order. Tim Snyder, board of directors chairman for CSSA, thinks the restrictions could limit students chances beyond Sac State.

“If we get a C one semester,” Snyder said, “there goes law school, there goes med school, there goes a good MBA program.”

CSSA and Snyder also realized that students who have made mistakes early in their educational careers will have to live with them, and students will intentionally fail courses in order to repeat.

CSU Director of Enrollment Management Services Jim Blackburn responded by saying the “principles of the discussion” behind the executive order still stand in the face of ASI’s and CSSA’s opposition.

The purpose of the executive order was to accelerate students toward graduation and avoid wasteful spending. Blackburn said that wasteful spending includes repeating courses.

“They’re spending taxpayer money twice,” Blackburn said. “A lot of us would want to improve our GPA. I know I would have.”

Blackburn said that students will be able to graduate just fine if they make C grades.

“I don’t want to sound harsh,” he said. “The university is not here to improve students’ GPA.”

Both CSSA and ASI have stated that they understand the reasoning behind the executive order, but proclaim that not enough research was done in the creation process.

“They didn’t include us in the process,” Snyder said. “If it’s really going to save money, how much money is it going to save? Is it worth it to decrease a student’s chance at success?”

Some students across campus share the same sentiment of opposition.

Senior occupational health science major Brittany Grinnell wants to attend graduate school at the University of California, San Francisco, but her C in physiology might not make the cut.

“I was going to retake it over again,” Grinnell said. “I guess I can’t.”

Junior social work major Kym Hein has never received a grade lower than a B, but still sees a problem with the new course repetition policy.

“I don’t understand why they wouldn’t allow it,” Hein said. “I find that interesting, if the students do better, it’s better for the university. The order seems counterproductive.”

Faculty Senate Chairman Bruce Bikle said that the executive order might have been passed in order to curb grade inflation.

“In today’s society, everyone has to be better than average,” Bikle said. “There is a body of thought that a C is a bad grade. A C is average; average isn’t bad.”

The Faculty Senate has not yet discussed the executive order, but Bikle plans on bringing the issue up in the future.

“If there is a groundswell of opposition by the faculty,” he said. “We will go to Long Beach and try to change the policy.”

According to Sac State’s Registrar’s Office, the campus enrollment system has not been updated to follow through with the executive order. Students can retake classes with above C grades until the system is updated.

The Registrar’s Office had no information on when the system will be updated.

Michael Mette can be reached at [email protected]