Steve Brauntuch: Princeton's new grade policy flawed

If you're like most Penn students, you hate Princeton. With a passion. In fact, you probably look for the occasional news story that reminds you of your hatred for our snooty Ivy League neighbor to the north.

If this describes you, then you've hit the gold mine, because this week, a Princeton official has given us another reason to hate our elitist rivals.

Our winner is Princeton Undergraduate College Dean Nancy Malkiel, currently holding onto her title by the skin of her teeth. Apparently, things were going too well for Princeton students, what with the good grades they were receiving. As a result, Malkiel has decided that professors must stop rewarding their students with high grades at once!

In a letter to faculty members last week, Malkiel proposed that the school adopt a limit on the number of A's that professors can award their students in a given class. If she has her way, less than 35 percent of students in any class and less than 55 percent of those performing independent studies will get A's for their work.

All of this is a newfangled way to combat grade inflation, a phantom issue that Malkiel has dubbed "an intractable national problem." The national uproar over grade inflation really began a few years back, when a study revealed that more than 50 percent of grades given to undergraduates at Harvard were either A's or A-minuses. Administrators were quick to blame faculty members, who had apparently stopped taking their teaching seriously and become too soft on their students.

This came to a boiling point in 2002 with the publication of College Grading: A National Crisis in Undergraduate Education, a book by former Duke Statistics professor Valen Johnson. Johnson's statistical analysis of grades given out at Duke showed more inequalities. Science classes were graded significantly harder than humanities classes, and those professors who were deemed "tough graders" received the lowest approval ratings from their students.

The pressure to give good grades, according to Johnson, had a negative impact on the education that students received and the service that professors offered. In an op-ed piece in The New York Times, Johnson cautioned of a potential decline in students studying the natural sciences and the department downsizing that could result. "By rewarding mediocrity," he wrote, "excellence is discouraged."

And so, two years later, we arrive at Princeton's ill-conceived grade cap. Malkiel claims that her idea for this plan came from students and faculty themselves. Apparently, as she claims in her letter, "It responds to the desire of students for evenhandedness in grading across all departments."

Really? So Princeton students want lower grades, huh? You don't think you might have misjudged that one a little bit? These students couldn't possibly have issues with individual teaching assistants or professors, could they? And they obviously resent the fact that professors reward them for their effort, especially for voluntary independent study projects, right?

Now I may be way off base here, but I would guess that the best way to promote "evenhanded grading" isn't by penalizing students for their effort. In fact, I'm pretty sure most students would tell you they don't have a problem with professors giving out high grades. And you know what? I bet most professors don't have a problem with it, either.

Administrators who promote policies against grade inflation are blatantly ignoring the fact that academia has changed since 1950. It's not just about being the most prestigious research university in the country -- it's also about attracting students to come to your school. And there's no better way to do that than by telling prospective students, "Come to Princeton! You'll probably get a B!"

Maybe students have actually gotten smarter over the years or put in more work these days. Maybe professors have begun to reward students more for their effort than for their achievements. Maybe administrators should realize that it's awfully tough to get into graduate schools these days. Since most schools -- like this one -- offer absolutely zero help in that endeavor, the least they can do for their students is keep the playing field level.

Or how about this for an idea: Maybe college administrators should leave things well enough alone. Most of them are quite a few years removed from their days in the classroom on either side of the desk. Princeton officials probably think they're morally superior by being the first to put in a grade cap, but it doesn't look like other schools are rushing to join them on their high and mighty hill. So Malkiel and her brethren would probably be wise to dump their proposal unless they can come up with a better justification than "evenhanded grading."

But hey -- if Princeton administrators want to punish students for attending their school, that's fine with me. I know a lot of people applying to law school who would gladly go up against a Princeton kid if his school purposely lowered his GPA. If this idiotic grade inflation policy is enacted, maybe Princeton kids will see the light and start hating their school, too.

Steve Brauntuch is a senior communications major from Tenafly, N.J., and former editorial page editor of The Daily Pennsylvanian. Statler and Waldorf appears on Wednesdays..

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