The ayes have it

With the 156-84 vote yesterday in favor of the grade inflation proposals, the faculty have agreed to "expectations" that they will limit A's in each department to 35 percent on coursework and 55 percent on independent work. While it remains to be seen how this will be enforced and if the nearly one third of faculty who voted against it will want to cooperate, Dean of the College Nancy Weiss Malkiel now needs to turn her attention to other schools.

Malkiel said during the meeting that other elite schools would feel pressure to follow Princeton if it took the lead in fighting grade inflation. Now that we have, she should be part of that pressure.

One of students' primary concerns was that that deflated Princeton grades will put them at a competitive disadvantage when they enter the workforce or apply to graduate school. Malkiel and the Committee on Examinations and Standing were right to be concerned about the issue in drafting the proposal. The only thing more they could have done was partnering with other schools to combat grade inflation at the same time.

But that is not the path Princeton has chosen. The faculty have chosen to go it alone, believing that the principle is worth the short-term pain.

Malkiel and others who are sensitive to students' concerns should now do all they can to ensure that what she referred to as the "Princeton A" — the deflated one — doesn't remain exclusive to Princeton.

Nothing would do more to ease students' fears than the sight of other schools adopting similar grading policies. Now, students have to take her, graduate schools and employers at their word. If other schools can be persuaded to deflate grades grades, the Princeton A will be the same as any other A. Only then will students be able to rest assured they're not being put at a disadvantage.

Malkiel's work has just begun.