The endless memories we make here often supersede the stressful days and sleepless nights. That’s why we as students feel the need to give back to our school, whether in donating after we’re long gone or doing simple deeds while we’re still here. However, assigning a numerical grade to janitorial services is outright diminishing to students’ willingness to give back to the school.

Recently, the grading system changed and became pass/fail. This was a step in the perfect direction for the student body because a pass/fail work service is less ambiguous than the highly subjective previous system.

All MSMS students are required to complete a certain amount of work service periods every nine-weeks. Most students have to do things such as clean bathrooms, hallways, labs, etc. The work service advisers can grade students one of four choices: (in order from highest grade to lowest) Outstanding (O), Satisfactory (S), Needs Improvement (NI) and Unsatisfactory (U).

Work service plays a huge part in which privilege plan we receive, which is testing being that the system is highly unfair for students who have different advisers. Some students could get away with half-doing work service and get an O while others receive an S or NI for their best work because their adviser may be bit more strict.

Advisers are now  more likely to be consistent with one another because, as we all know, it’s easier to mark pass or fail decision rather than grading students’ free labor based on a system that does not have a definitive grading rubric listing all of the criteria.

We as students need consistency and structure just like any faculty or staff member. We need to be able to predict the privilege plan that we could possibly obtain. We need to be able to know what to expect as a work service grade when we have done everything to best of our ability to do our duty as students.

Most of all, we need choices and options–a voice. We understand the reasoning behind the work service duties for the most part, and this step towards meeting us in the middle with our wants and dislikes with the work service system shows that administration has started to hear that voice that has been muffled for so long.

With the new grading system, work service does not have to be an everyday worry for students anymore. We can now somewhat appreciate it as an integral aspect in the MSMS experience that teaches responsibility and accountability, thus adding it to the list of endless memories.