Harvard to Review Ways To Drop Average Grades

In Harvard's class of 2001, a record 91 percent of seniors graduated with honors.

Harvard formed a subcommittee of the Committee of Undergraduate Education that will discuss ways to re-establish a B as the average grade and clarify the standards of A's. The committee -- composed of faculty and students -- met April 17 to discuss possible solutions.

Drafts of Harvard's proposal include plans to adjust numerical grade scoring, clarifying the meaning of an A on student transcripts, eliminating the honors track for underclassmen and eliminating all-honors majors in some departments.

A final draft has not been completed.

A similar committee was formed at UNC last fall. University Registrar David Lanier said the Task Force on Grading Standards, a subcommittee of the Faculty Council, has established a resolution that will monitor inflation activity.

"Each year, the Faculty Council will be giving a report on grade inflation," he said. "It will be implemented next year. This is the base year."

Lanier said that several plans of action were proposed to the Faculty Council but that only the resolution passed.

Lanier said he is disappointed that this is the only action the Faculty Council will take against grade inflation.

"After hearing all of this, the only thing the Faculty Council adopted was the resolution, which isn't as strong as what we would have hoped for," he said.

Lanier added that University faculty members are divided in their views on grade inflation.

"Some believe (grade-point averages) should go up because we're admitting more highly qualified students," he said. "Others maintain that a certain number of A's, B's and C's should be given. It's bad if you're on the side that believes a percentage of A's should be given."

Economics Professor Boone Turchi, who has been a critic of UNC's grade inflation in the past, said there are different degrees of grade inflation. "It varies considerably with each department," he said.

Turchi said he thinks grade inflation decreases the quality of education at the University. "It has several consequences," he said. "It affects the degree of mastery of material, and it makes it a lot easier to get through the University by doing nothing."

Turchi said this is the second wave of grade inflation UNC has experienced. He said the first was in the late 1960s and the early 1970s. He said it might have correlated with the Vietnam War and the maintenance of deferments, citing that students needed a certain GPA to avoid the draft.

Turchi also said there was an upturn of grades in the 1980s. He said this is significant because at that time, the University first mandated that students complete faculty evaluations, which have a direct correlation on grade inflation.

But Turchi said he thinks most students have mixed feelings about grade inflation.

"First of all, they understand and recognize it has negative consequences," he said. "Secondly, they don't want to be the ones affected by the halting of it. There's an ambivalence there that is perfectly understandable."

The State & National Editor can be reached at stntdesk@unc.edu.