The average percentage of A's awarded to undergraduates has dropped by over six percent University-wide since the grade deflation policy was implemented three years ago, according to a report released yesterday by the Faculty Committee on Grading.
While an average of 47 percent of undergraduates received A's in courses during the period 2001-04, the percentage fell to an average of 40.6 percent from 2004-07.
The grade deflation policy requires every department to cap its A-level grades at 35 percent in undergraduate courses and at 55 percent for independent work.
"The Princeton faculty has now demonstrated conclusively that with clear intent and concerted effort, a university faculty can bring down the inflated grades that — left uncontrolled — devalue the educational achievements of American college students," the Committee reported.
The Faculty Committee on Grading incorporated last academic year's grading results into a broader comparison of the percentages of A's granted before and after the policy was implemented in fall 2004.
Humanities departments saw the greatest decreases in the percentage of A grades awarded. But these departments also continued to hand out the highest number of A's over the past three years at 45.9 percent. The figure dropped from an average of 55.5 percent A's in 2001-04.
Engineering witnessed a similarly large drop from 50.2 percent A's before grade deflation to 42.1 since 2004.
Among the natural sciences, 35.7 percent of grades were A's after three years of grade deflation, a 1.5 percent drop from the years prior to the implementation of the grade deflation policy.
Five unspecified departments reduced their percentage of A's by as much as 15 percent.
Yesterday at the first faculty meeting of the year, Dean of the College Nancy Malkiel encouraged those departments in compliance with the grade deflation guidelines to "keep it up," while urging the departments not yet in compliance to "keep at it."
"It's going to take more work," Malkiel said. "If you pushed just a little bit more, we'd be in the high 30-percent range University-wide."
Though the humanities and engineering divisions have yet to fall into the required range for grade deflation, the committee said individual departments in those fields have made "major strides in bringing their grades down."
Also during the faculty meeting, Dean of the Faculty David Dobkin introduced over 60 additions to the faculty, including professors, assistants, visiting professors and instructors.
"This is the very best part of my job," Dobkin said, acknowledging new members individually by their departments, previous studies and academic specialties.
President Tilghman stressed the importance of the Princeton faculty, saying that its members determine and maintain the "temperature and pulse" of the University.
"The wellbeing of this University is directly correlated with the quality of this faculty," she said.
Before the meeting adjourned, Dobkin asked the faculty to rise for a rendition of "Happy Birthday" in celebration of Tilghman's 61st birthday.
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