At the USG's weekly meeting last night in Frist Campus Center, Dean of the College Nancy Malkiel explained the administration's research and possible response to grade inflation.
"I would consider it a considerable accomplishment if we were to stop the upward trend in mean GPA," she said.
Malkiel reiterated that the administration is not considering mandating a grading curve. Each department has been asked to review its methods of grading and report to the dean's office by the end of May, she said.
The visit comes after a faculty committee headed by Malkiel found that the related trends of grade inflation and grade compression have not stopped since the last time the data was studied in 1999.
Any decision about grading at the University would be made by the faculty, Malkiel said.
"Grades are the responsibility of the faculty," she said.
She explained that the departments will not be required to accept student input when establishing departmental guidelines for grading.
Cooperation
U-Councilor Chris Wendell '03 asked whether cooperation between the Ivy Leagues could prevent students at a particular school from receiving lower grades than their peers.
"The chances that we are going to disadvantage our students is nonexistent," Malkiel responded.
The various Ivy League deans have been meeting to try and standardize data and research on grading over the past several years, she said.
USG president Pettus Randall '04 said he fears that students could be periodically penalized during the years that the administration takes a harder stance against grade inflation.
The change in weight of an A-plus in 2000 — from 4.3 to 4.0 — was not figured into the recent report's data on grade inflation.
More compression
Malkiel said the effort to discourage excessive A+ grades did cause greater grade compression, but that it was worth it to preserve the definition of academic perfection.
Neither Princeton nor similar institutions have been able to find longterm solutions to grade inflation, she said.
"There isn't any magic solution," she said.
This comes on the heels of a report by a Duke professor. It stated that since 1991, the average mean GPA at a large group of private institutions – including Princeton, Harvard and Duke University – has risen from 3.11 to 3.26.
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