The Binghamton University Student Assembly passed a resolution Monday night requesting that the Vice President for Academic Affairs Mary Ann Swain make a recommendation for the scale of the grade-point averages to be changed from 4.0 to 4.3.

The resolution, written by Yadin Herzel, Assembly representative for Off Campus College Council, states that the "chromatic variants of letter grades, namely pluses and minuses, inherently and mathematically bias grade-point averages downward when only a downward variant exists for a given letter grade."

If the appropriate committees and BU officials approve the resolution, the grading scale will be a mathematically unbiased scale, according to the resolution.

"[The 4.3 scale] is a growing trend among many schools, especially private schools," Herzel said. "Cornell University switched over to this a couple of years ago; there is a very good chance it could pass here."

According to Herzel, the plus and minus system was first introduced at BU around 10 to 20 years ago, and grades that already exist, exist.

"It is a very respected grading scale," Herzel said. "Any objection from graduate schools would only occur if the final GPA is above 4.0. Anything above 4.0 would only be used internally and no offical GPA can be above 4.0."

The resolution, which passed by a vote of 31 for, 9 against and 10 abstentions. SA Vice President for Academic Affairs Daniel Rabinowitz will now push for the necessary committees and administration to approve this change.