The threat of a bad grade leads many students to frantic nights of paper shuffling, stress and endless cups of coffee to quickly learn information that is often more quickly forgotten.

Grading is a necessary classroom evil --something many faculty and students dread because it may not always show what students know, but is needed to encourage class attendance and studying.

"We shouldn't be giving grades," said Paul Heinemann, assistant professor of agricultural engineering. "When (students) leave your class, they should know the material."

Heinemann and six other faculty members talked about abolishing grades at a Continuous Quality Improvement meeting last month. CQI is designed to examine University programs and find ways to improve them.

But Louise Sandmeyer, CQI executive director, said doing away with grades is not probable.

"It's so much part of the system, it's highly doubtful we'd get rid of grades," she said after the meeting.

Elise Yankovich (senior-psychology) said it would be great not to be graded, but students would not have much motivation to learn the material. It probably wouldn't work in most classes, she said.

Eliminating grades would be a big leap, but John Cahir, vice provost and dean of undergraduate education, said many faculty members would like to see a movement from a grading to a learning environment.

"A lot of us would be ecstatic to have the excessive preoccupation with grading replaced with the zealous process of learning," Cahir said.

Jeff Pavelko (senior-business logistics) said the problems with grading depend on the class. In large classes, the professor doesn't know a student's capabilities, he said.

"They don't know if you're actually learning something," Pavelko said, adding that the problem isn't really with getting a grade, "it's how they teach."

Although Pavelko said he had some general education classes he liked, he also had some classes where he just memorized information.

After graduation, students will have to use what they have learned to produce something or achieve a certain competency -- not get a grade, Heinemann said.

Students still need a certificate or something concrete to demonstrate that they have learned.

"Teachers can teach, but unless students have learned, then it isn't really effective," Sandmeyer said.

Instead of completely eliminating grades, Cahir suggested students be able to take some graded and some ungraded classes.

If a student had to take 40 classes while in college, only 30 would be graded. The rest would be internships, studying abroad, research or pass/fail, Cahir said.

Kathryn Dansky, assistant professor of health policy administration, said role playing might work in her field. Students would be told when they started college, "You are President Clinton and you need to redesign the health care system -- and you have four years to do it," she said.

But feedback on how students are doing is needed to make sure they understand. "That part of the grading process is a necessary tool," Cahir said.

Exams during the semester also show if the student understands the material, he said, adding that often the final exam isn't returned and doesn't give the student any feedback.