While debate over grade inflation has challenged old habits at campuses across the country, nowhere does pressure for reform loom so large as at media magnet Harvard University.
The nation's oldest and most famous university also leads the Ivy League in one not entirely desirable category -- last year Harvard handed out honors degrees with nearly twice the frequency of any of its peers.
Nearly half of the grades granted at Harvard last year fell into the A and A- categories -- meanwhile, grades in the C range composed only 4.9 percent of the total.
These figures represent marked change over grades given in 1985, which Harvard's dean of undergraduate education Susan Pedersen released in a report on grade inflation sent to faculty late last year. In 1985, A range grades accounted for 33.2 percent of grades, and the three C categories represented 10 percent of the total.
"Professors have forgotten what it's like to give students a C," Harvard professor of government Harvey Mansfield, a controversial opponent of grade inflation, said.
Also, last spring over 90 percent of Harvard seniors took home Latin honors -- awards intended to distinguish a university's top achievers. By contrast, Yale University and Princeton University gave honors degrees to 51 and 44 percent of their respective senior classes. The problem, according to Mansfield, an outspoken critic of current of grading policies, is "even worse" than grade inflation.
While the hard numbers are undeniable, the issue of how Harvard should respond to them is more problematic. Perspectives differ widely among students, faculty and administrators as to what action should be taken to curb the tide -- and, indeed, whether or not Harvard students should receive lower grades at all.
One of the more popular theories about the cause of grade inflation holds that professors have become too concerned with appeasing high-achieving students who react unhappily to lower marks.
In an online poll posted early this week by The Harvard Crimson, 24 percent of respondents squared the fault on professors' offering lenient grades to satisfy high student expectations. Education, Mansfield asserted, is too concerned with "making students feel good."
The tendency to grade sympathetically appears with greater frequency in small classes where professors often form close connections with their students. Harvard senior Robert Colvin noted that he received an unexpected A in a five person seminar class, and 14 percent of Crimson survey respondents faulted small classes for the spike in grade inflation.
"In larger classes, the professor doesn't know who you are," and consequently he or she "doesn't care if you get upset," Colvin said.
Indeed, only 18 percent of undergraduates consider grade inflation a serious problem at Harvard, according to a separate survey conducted by The Crimson last week. None of the students who spoke with The Dartmouth consider grade inflation out of hand.
"Obviously we want higher grades, so we're in favor of grade inflation," Colvin said.
Some students decried the amount of attention Harvard's grading system has received.
"I feel like with all the problems going on in the world right now, cracking down on a couple of smart kids for getting good grades is kind of a waste of time," junior Lindsay Coleman said. She noted that Harvard students already feel very stressed over their grades under the current system.
The plurality of Harvard students -- some 38 percent -- who responded to an online Crimson poll early this week put the blame on the idea that Harvard has simply "gone soft" on its students.
A controversial email in which a history department tutor encouraged faculty to go easy on students' grades from fall semester put that theory on display.
"Events throughout the fall, starting with September 11, have been distressing for everyone ... [and] despite the recent hullabaloo over grade inflation, this is not the semester in which to crack down," Joyce Chaplin wrote in an email sent to history professors on Jan. 15, and later forwarded to The Crimson.
The message met largely with disdain from faculty members.
While freshman Alison Connor believes that most Harvard students earn the grades they receive, she noted that professors may give higher grades to validate certain programs, such as in the first year expository writing requirement. Connor said that in these classes, most students start off with low grades but invariably improve with each paper.
"It's very possible that [the students] are just improving, but it's also possible that the teachers are trying to show that expository writing is working," she said.
The remaining 25 percent of respondents to the more recent survey believe that today's Harvard students are simply smarter than past classes.
On Jan. 30, Dean of Undergraduate Education Susan Pedersen proposed one step toward lessening the issue -- stop giving out honors degrees to students with B averages.
That may not sound like a radical idea, but at a college that in 2001 sent an astounding 91 percent of its graduates off into the workforce with Latin honors, it would represent a major reform.
That measure comes as part of an overall campaign by new Harvard President Lawrence Summers to tackle the problem of increasing the overall academic fervor of a Harvard education.
At a November meeting, Summers advised faculty to undertake close reviews of their grading policies; for her part, Pederson asked that all professors submit written justifications of these policies by Feb. 15.
The fallout from that action may already have hit some departments.
"A lot of peoples' grades have really suffered" since the change, Coleman said.
In classes taught by Mansfield, a professor long tacked with the nickname "Harvey C minus," students receive two grades: one that will go on their transcripts and one he feels they actually deserve. He said he holds back from simply assigning the latter grade to avoid unduly punishing his students.
"Only masochists would take my classes," he said.
A strong majority of Harvard undergraduates oppose any form of college-wide attempt to restrict the number of high grades awarded. Only 27 percent of students in The Crimson's sample said they would agree with such an action.
Harvard's Education Policy Committee rejected a proposal five years ago to create an "enhanced transcript," which would display each class' median grade alongside the student's mark. Dartmouth has used enhanced transcripts since the mid 1990s. Opponents of this system note that while it reveals the context of a student's performance in each class, it does little to actively prevent grade inflation.
The option of creating additional grade options -- such as an A+ or B+/A- -- in order to provide professors with more choices to distinguish levels of achievement without passing out lower grades appealed to slightly less than half of participants in The Crimson's survey.
