Faculty votes to abolish the A

The proposal is intended to increase academic rigor and decrease GPAs across all departments, Malkiel said in an interview after the vote.

“We had a thoughtful and extended discussion today, and now we need to get to work to implement the proposals in the most thoughtful and sensitive way possible,” she said.

Malkiel was also one of the lead authors of the University’s current grading policy, passed in 2004, which encourages faculty to give a maximum of 35 percent A-range grades in undergraduate courses.

Under the new guidelines, which will take effect next fall, students will be unable to receive grades above an A-minus. Additionally, no student will be able to attain an undergraduate GPA higher than 3.6, even if all of their grades are A-minuses.

This will mean that all seniors, beginning with the Class of 2014, will be unable to apply for the prestigious Marshall Scholarship, which requires a 3.7 GPA or higher.

“Since Princeton students will no longer be eligible for the Marshall, I have decided to eliminate the Office of Postgraduate Fellowships,” Malkiel explained.

Anticipating a number of faculty and student concerns, Malkiel said the proposals were “by and of the faculty” and would not negatively affect academic freedom.

“These proposals do not try to tell faculty how to teach,” she noted. “No faculty member should fail to give an A-minus to a student who deserves it.”

Noting that inflated grades “devalue the educational achievements of American college students,” Malkiel added that she believed several peer institutions would soon follow suit.

“Many other schools have already contacted me about implementing a similar policy,” she said. “It is my sincere hope and firm expectation that the A will soon be extinct.”

Malkiel said she will draft a letter explaining the administration’s new policy for students to send out to potential employers and graduate schools, adding that she is confident this measure will not harm Princeton students’ career opportunities.

“All the data we have for the last period of time since the grading policy went into effect tell us that there are no negative, worrying results in terms of fortunes of Princeton students in the postgraduate world in which people wish to pursue opportunities,” she said.

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Upon hearing of the policy, most fellowships, graduate programs and recruiters have said “bravo for Princeton,” Malkiel said. “In some cases, there have been explicit statements that ‘Princeton applicants have done better with us this year because now we know that Princeton grades are real grades.’ ”

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