USG to author grade inflation report

Frustrated by the lack of student input in recent administrative decisions, the USG is working on a report about the University's grade inflation policy that will include suggestions to make the system more effective.

"I think it is fairly safe to say that students aren't going to repeal the grade inflation policy," USG President Leslie-Bernard Joseph '06 said. "That is not our job. Our job is to make sure that students' concerns are not only heard but met."

Dean of the College Nancy Malkiel said this week that there has been student involvement in the grading proposals but declined to elaborate further.

The report will ask that students receive detailed departmental grading rubrics and thorough comments from the grader on all written work. It will also call on the administration to talk to other schools about adopting similar policies and will ask the school to step up its publicity campaign so that people inside and outside the University understand the new policy.

"We want to remind the administration of what they said they were going to do with the policy in the first place — make grades have meaning," USG Undergraduate Life Chair Tom Brown '07 said.

He added that the report will also look at the policy's qualitative effects, such as its impact on student stress levels and the campus' competitive atmosphere.

"We've accepted that the policy passed whether we like it or not," USG Academics Chair Robert Wai Wong '06 said. "Now we are calling for them to do some of the things that they told us they would do. We're looking for some accountability from the administration."

Though the University released findings of the Faculty Committee on Grading on Monday, the USG only learned about it the night before when Joseph was contacted for comment by an Associated Press reporter.

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"I think there is a wariness for the administration to be beholden to any student authority," Joseph said. "Sometimes they forget that Princeton exists for the students and that we do think about what is in our best interest and the interests of students down the road."

Members of the USG said they were not sure if there is an official faculty committee focusing on the grading policy. "If there is a committee, we'd like to know about it, just to get the student voice out there," Brown said. "That is the whole idea of a democratic student government."

According to the Rights, Rules, Responsibilities handbook, a USG member should be allowed to sit in on the committee, if it exists.

Joseph said he fears that even if students are allowed on the committee after most of the work has been done, "the important issues won't be discussed with the students."

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Several members of the administration are also scheduled to attend Sunday's senate meeting to talk about the four-year college system and answer questions about dining and student life. But when it comes to planning, the USG may not have a chance to participate at all.

Class senator Sunshine Yin '08 said that when she tried to join the Four-Year College Program Planning Committee, she was told that most of the planning was finished.

"I find it a little unfair that we are not being included in the planning process," said Yin, who wanted the committee to have representation from the freshmen and sophomore classes who will actually experience the new system. "They say that there is no planning left to be done, but if there were no planning left, then this program would already be in effect."

"We want to have a voice in what our residential life is going to be like, and we've made efforts to do that," Yin said. "But we haven't received much encouragement from the administration."