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Note: Story is from January 12. Posting this for the record...just found it. Thank you.

PERPETUAL STUDENT'S GPA CONFOUNDS COMPUTER

MANHATTAN, Kan. (AP) -- Gary Plumberg has earned four undergraduate degrees at Kansas State University: in bacteriology, English literature, and a dual degree in accounting and finance.

He's earned a master's degree, too, in accounting.

And he's three years into a sixth degree in Roman and Greek antiquities.

''To me, going to school a few hours is (equal to) everybody else playing golf or going bowling,'' said Plumberg, shyly adding he hasn't had a C in any class since 1977.

But late last month, Plumberg, who has attended Kansas State classes on and off since 1963, got a letter from the university threatening to expel him for -- of all things -- poor grades.

''You have been placed on academic warning,'' the letter declared, the words ''academic warning'' written in bold, black letters and underlined. ''I very much hope you will improve your academic record.''

The university claimed the career student's grade cumulative grade point average was a microscopic 0.02.

''I thought they had somebody else,'' said Plumberg, an accountant for Century Business Systems in Manhattan.

Oh, no, Kansas State did have the right student. The problem was, Plumberg had simply outgrown the school's computer system.

Plumberg has amassed so many grade points over the last 37 years -- 1,010, to be exact -- that there isn't room in Kansas State's GPA-calculating computer system for them all.

The system can fit only three digits in the space designated for grade points, said Charlotte Pfaff, an information technology consultant at the university.

Since the computer couldn't fit Plumberg's four-digit total, it chopped off the first digit. The result: Instead of 1,010 points, Plumberg instantly had only 10 grade points for the 341 credit hours he's taken over the years at Kansas State.

Do the math, and Plumberg's GPA -- thanks to the computing glitch -- was 0.029 instead of the 2.962 it should have been.

Here's how Kansas State calculates students' grade point averages.

Every grade a student earns is given a point value: A's equal 4 points apiece, B's 3 points, etc. Each class also has a credit hour distinction, roughly equating to the number of hours a week the class meets. So, if a student takes a 3-credit class and gets a B (3 points), his total points for that class would be nine.

That equation is done for each class the student takes; those totals are then added together and divided by the total number of credit hours the student took in that semester.

For a cumulative GPA, the total grade points for each semester the student has attended the school are added up and divided by the total credit hours the student accumulated in the same time span.

For Plumberg, that would have be 1,010 divided by 341 -- if the computer could count that high.

Pfaff said Plumberg is the first student ever to have gathered four digits' worth of grade points.

''To have a student take that number of undergraduate hours is indeed rare,'' she said.

For now, the university has bandaged the problem by promising to attach a letter explaining the error to all transcripts Plumberg requests. Pfaff said the school is looking into adjusting its computer system so four digits can be held in that particular space, but she said the cost of such a move will determine whether something is done.

Meanwhile, Plumberg is simply glad the glitch was caught and he'll be able to remain in school. He is thinking about applying to the University of Kansas, where he would pursue a master's degree in Roman and Greek antiquities.

''If I couldn't go to school,'' Plumberg said, pausing, searching for an appropriate comparison to the dread, ''it would be the equivalent of (some people) not being able to play golf. ... I just prefer to take a class.''

http://www.dodgeglobe.com/stories/011200/sta_student.shtml

-- Dee (T1Colt556@aol.com), February 21, 2000

Answers

That's a great one, Dee. Thanks!

(I'm glad I'm not still in the midst of my 13-year undergrad career -- leading to only one degree. I can just imagine what the computer would have done to me this year.)

-- jor-el (jor-el@krypton.uni), February 23, 2000.