On Feb. 7, Student Council hosted a student town hall meeting regarding possible changes to the grade point average. Some of the questions discussed in this meeting concerned the purpose of the GPA, if the GPA is working and what classes should be factored into the GPA.

“Since GPA is really important for college admissions, personal pride and class rank, it’s important that we have a fair and appropriate system,” junior class president Viraj Mehta said.

Students said they believe that because of the wide multiplier difference between regular classes like band and AP classes like art history, students are being punished for pursuing their interests in music or athletics.

“Student Council has recognized that there is a wide gap in the multiplier system between AP classes and regular ones so StuCo is working hard to make the multiplier system more fair for all students,” vice president junior Grace Robertson said.

The current GPA system allows upperclassmen to take whatever classes they want within state requirements, with a 1.2 multiplier for AP classes and a 1.1 multiplier for Pre-AP classes.

“Steps are being taken to help improve the GPA problems like a new rule that regulates incoming freshmen to take four unweighted classes before they graduate, but there are still issues with this new idea,” Viraj said. “Although this is a step to level out the playing field, it cannot allow students to fulfill their academic potential.”

Many ideas were thrown around at the meeting and Student Council is working hard to create a plan to move forward according to the opinions discussed.

“Most students agreed that the GPA system of today creates unnecessary stress for the students to follow a narrow syllabus of courses from Westlake’s broad offerings to get the high GPA we are pressured towards,” Viraj said.

The Student Council Executive Board will discuss the students’ ideas and present their recommendation to the administration and Campus Leadership Team.

“The GPA is very unfair because it discourages people from being involved in extracurricular activities,” senior Emily Richard said. “I believe there is a way to not penalize students for being involved in the community.”

All students were allowed to attend this meeting, and Student Council is hoping to hold another meeting for those students who couldn’t come. When the time and date of the next meeting are decided, it will be announced on the Chap Recap and also on the Student Council website, westlakestuco.com.