Final Course Meeting, U.S. Constitutional Law, American Resource Center

The final course meeting for U.S. Constitutional Law was held at the American Resource Center (in advance of my "Christmas in Florida" presentation).

The purpose of the meeting was to return all papers, exams, course materials, and for me to sign the matricula, fill out final grade sheets for the Dean, and to award certificates.

The "matricula" is like a little passport that contains the student's transcript. Each semester professors record students' grades and sign these books.

Final course grades are not A, B, C, D, F, but numeric grades from 1 through 10.

Since I come up with a final grade based on 100%, I was able to just move the decimal point and round up or down to calculate the final grade using this 10-point scale.

Apparently grading (during Soviet era) was also based on 5-point scale as in the U.S. (A thru F), but, after becoming the Republic of Moldova, schools switched to this 10-point scale (which is apparently similar to Romania's).

It is the scheduling of the final exam that leads to generating the final course rosters on which I could record students' final grades. On this "Fisa de Examinare" I recorded each student's grade and signed my name by each grade on the list.

For the last several years at USF we have been "paperless." I submit course grades online, using Blackboard. I have not received a paper copy of a roster for years. I access my course rosters (with photos!) online using Blackboard. So it was odd going back to an entirely paper-based system. Yet there was something very special about these "matricula" -- a tangible record of all of one's coursework, with entries from each of one's professors -- to have and to hold.