I was waiting for this one.
 
On Tue, 18 Aug 1998, D B Doucette wrote:
 
> Gophers [male ??] athletes [not counting those having left school for
> reasons of poor grades ?] posted an all-time high grade-point average of
> 2.84 [out of what -- 3.00, 4.00, 5.00 ??] in the fall and repeated that in
> the winter and spring quarters. The Gophers [male ??] athletes have
> improved .20 grade-points since 1990 and are [temporarily, as the numbers
> will change every semester] within .20 of the totals of the women athletes
> [at the same school ?]
 
It's on a 4.0 point scale, and one would assume male since they're being
compared to female.
 
> So, beyond the above analysis, might I ask further:
>
> Fall, Winter and Spring total the number three.  How can three divisions
> taken of a total of something be called quarters ??
 
Well, Summer could also count as a quarter, but I think the U is just
wacky.
 
> And who should be more upset at this news, the men for doing so poorly for
> so long, or the women for being demonstrated to be only marginally superior
> than the men ?
 
Obviously the men would be more upset at their prior performance but happy
with recent improvements, assuming they're all from better performance and
not more calls from the coaches.  The women should be happy, since this
means the women have a cumulative of over 3.0.
 
> Not to mention, (but I will anyway), perhaps the course load is not exactly
> the same in the two populations, so any conclusions are invalid because the
> basis of  measurement is not using equal comparisons ?  What about weighted
> grades based upon course difficulty ?  Any greater number of basket-weaving
> courses in the mix since 1990 for either group ?
 
We don't have weighted courses, but yes, there could be a great disparity
in the difficulty of courses measured.  However, men in the Institute of
Technology may tend to take Computer Science while the women tend to go
towards Chemistry, for example.  Would you be laying into the numbers so
much if they were put out by IT?  These are obviously different
disciplines which may be harder than one another.
 
I'm surprised that you didn't point out that they magically received 2.84
in all three quarters.
 
Tony
 
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