Malkiel says new grading initiative working

Dean of the College Nancy Malkiel defended the University's new grading policies against criticism from skeptical student leaders at a Monday meeting of the Council of the Princeton University Community (CPUC), insisting the policy would not deny A's to deserving students or damage Princetonians' opportunities after graduation.

Malkiel also emphasized the importance of widespread discussion about the planned four-year residential college system, saying that a document will be circulated this semester.

USG president Leslie-Bernard Joseph '06 said he is suspicious of the idea that the initiative gives students a more accurate idea of their work's quality.

"I find it hard to believe students don't know when they're doing their best work and can only tell [it's their best] when they get an A," he said.

But Malkiel said the policy has better enabled instructors to differentiate between levels of work, with positive results for students who seek honest assessments of their papers and problem sets.

"[Before the initiative] faculty members were giving students the same grade for the best work as for good work," she said, adding she had heard of some students who received A's on their theses from departments known to be generous, but then took their papers to rigorous professors in other departments for more honest commentary. "We as a faculty owed students a better calibration."

Malkiel also said the percentages specified in the new guidelines are based on the University's grading distributions in the 1970s through the early 1990s, a statement Joseph responded to with skepticism.

"It doesn't make sense to hold students to the same standards as 35 years ago," he said, noting that at that time the University was also just beginning to admit women and was much more racially exclusive.

U-Councilor Sandy Gibson '06 said he believes the newly-implemented grading policy — which restricts the percentage of A-range grades within departments to 35 percent for course work and 55 percent for independent work — has left many instructors confused and cautious.

A history major, Gibson said preceptors in his department have increased the number of B's they hand out, while the number of A's and C's have both declined — a phenomenon he said indicates preceptors are unsure how to proceed under the new initiative.

Gibson also expressed concerns about the policy's effects on students' post-graduation employment prospects, despite Malkiel's assurance that the employers and graduate schools she has contacted have said they will take the University's grading guidelines into account when making their decisions.

He said several jobs he's looked at still require a minimum GPA of 3.5, and do not seem to make exceptions for Princeton applicants with lower grade averages.

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"I've been telling friends, 'Princeton is the best for your education, but go to Harvard for your future,' " he said during the meeting, adding in a subsequent interview that employers reflexively favor "Harvard students who have 3.7 GPAs" over Princetonians with lower grades.

Earlier in the meeting, Malkiel discussed recent developments in the planning for Whitman College and the four-year residential college system. She emphasized the importance of student involvement in the last two years of planning before Whitman opens in 2007, repeating the reassurances she made at Sunday's USG meeting to student leaders worried that students were left out of instrumental conversations about the future of undergraduate student life.

She said administrators plan to distribute "Creating a New Social Environment in the Residential Colleges" — a document summarizing ideas brainstormed by administrators and faculty this summer — and to facilitate widespread student feedback about the University's plans for the colleges.

"The document is to be widely circulated," Malkiel said. "It must be discussed in every possible forum."

Professor Michael Jennings outlined the report of the Dining and Social Options Task Force, a committee focused on generating ideas for the colleges. Jennings said the plans should be attractive to a broad base of students, including those who would otherwise choose to go independent or reluctantly join eating clubs.

"But if colleges only appeal to independents then colleges will be perceived as a non-Princeton experience," he said. "They will be branded a kind of ghetto for certain kinds of students."

The meeting also included a presentation by economics professor Henry Farber, who chairs the CPUC's resources committee, on a proposal to ensure the University's endowment money is used ethically by the corporations in which it is invested. His committee has approved the initiative, Farber said, and it will now go to the University's Board of Trustees for consideration.

Farber added that the administration will hold a forum in November for members of the University community to discuss the matter.