Faculty Alters Grading, Honors

At yesterday’s Faculty meeting, professors unanimously adopted a new 4.0 grading scale and restricted the proportion of honors awarded each year to 60 percent of the graduating class.

The policy changes mark the culmination of a year-long discussion by the Faculty about how to best combat grade and honors inflation at Harvard.

The honors changes, which will take effect for the Class of 2005, should drastically reduce the number of honors degrees awarded by Harvard each year, said Dean of Undergraduate Education Susan G. Pedersen ’81-’82 yesterday.

Pedersen said that roughly five times more students will graduate without honors once the change is implemented, citing a report on grading practices and the determination of honors that her office published earlier this month. Last year, roughly 90 percent of seniors graduated with some form of honors.

Under the new honors guidelines, the proportion of seniors who may graduate with summa cum laude and magna cum laude degrees will be limited to 20 percent of the class. Summa cum laude honors will continue to be capped at five percent of seniors, as they have been for the past few years.

Those students recommended for honors by their department with the next highest averages will then be awarded cum laude degrees—with the total number of students receiving summa, magna and cum degrees not to exceed 50 percent of the graduating class.

The caps do not limit the percentage of magna degrees awarded to 15—if fewer than five percent of seniors are awarded summa cum laude, the remainder may be awarded magna cum laude degrees. Similarly, if fewer than 20 percent of seniors earn magna and summa distinctions, more than 30 percent may receive cum laude honors.

Candidates not recommended for honors by their department will still be eligible to receive a cum laude degree, but this distinction will be limited to ten percent of seniors. A proposal to eliminate this form of honors faded after it was discussed at a Faculty meeting earlier this year.

The proposal for the honors changes did not provoke much opposition from Faculty at yesterday’s meeting.

The greatest concern voiced by professors was that the honors restrictions will discourage students from writing theses, since students will be less likely to receive official recognition for their thesis in the form of an honors degree. Currently, writing a thesis is an almost surefire way of graduating with honors.

Professors also worried that the new rules might encourage students to select easier classes to inflate their grades.

Pedersen acknowledged yesterday that there will be unforeseen consequences to the changes, which is why she the new policy has built into it a recommendation that it be reviewed within five years of its implementation.

The switch to a 4.0 grading scale from the Faculty’s current 15-point scale was not controversial. Most Faculty who spoke on the change at yesterday’s meeting agreed that it could only help to clarify the meaning of Harvard’s grades to the general public as well as to professors and students.

University President Lawrence H. Summers expressed his approval for yesterday’s legislation.

“I welcome the Faculty’s adoption of higher standards for honors, more transparent grading and sounder grading practices in the future,” Summers said in a statement.

The grading and honors proposals adopted yesterday were drafted by the Educational Policy Committee and shaped by the Faculty Council.

Pedersen said yesterday that her office will continue to push the Faculty to clarify the meaning of its grades.

She said her office would circulate among the entire Faculty a compilation of the materials collected during its year-long review of Harvard’s grading practices to further conversations about these issues.

Also at yesterday’s meeting, Dean of the College Harry R. Lewis ’68 announced the creation of a University-wide committee to review and “make recommendations to the Dean of Harvard College and to the Provost on all institutional support services for victims of sexual violence and all preventive, educational, and outreach programs to reduce the incidence of sexual violence in Harvard College.”

Lewis said yesterday the formation of the committee was a response to concerns voiced by students and professors earlier this month, after the Faculty approved a new Administrative Board policy for handling peer disputes, including allegations of sexual assault.

Under the new policy, the Ad Board will no longer investigate allegations for which there is no corroborating evidence.

Following the meeting, some Faculty expressed their concern that the change had been hastily approved—professors had not been notified of the proposed change prior to the meeting, and the actual wording of the new policy was not distributed among Faculty at the meeting, before they voted to adopt it.

Lewis apologized yesterday for the way the policy change was carried out, though he noted that it was the same procedure used in previous years to adopt changes in Ad Board procedure.

The new committee will be chaired by Dr. Jennifer Leaning ’68, professor of international health at the Harvard School of Public Health. (Please see related story, “Assault Services Reviewed,” page 1.)

The Faculty also approved the Courses of Instruction for the 2002-2003 academic year—including a roster of 92 freshmen seminars. The program this year offered 61 seminars, a surge over the 36 offered the previous year.

Yesterday’s meeting marked more than the end of the academic year.

It was also the last time that Dean of the Faculty Jeremy R. Knowles sat at the round table where the deans and President reside during each Faculty meeting.

Knowles passed the baton yesterday to Geisinger Professor of History William C. Kirby, whom Summers selected at the end of last week to be the next dean of the Faculty.

Summers presented the dean-elect to the Faculty at the start of yesterday’s meeting.

Summers praised Kirby’s accomplishments as professor and administrator.

“The better people know Bill…the more loudly they tend to sing his praises,” he said.

Summers bid the China scholar well with a Chinese expression of good luck meaning, “I wish you a prosperous wind.”

The Faculty greeted Kirby with a standing ovation.

Kirby thanked Summers for the opportunity to lead the Faculty and expressed his enthusiasm for the years ahead.

He also praised Knowles for leaving him a “rejuvenated” Faculty of Arts and Sciences.

At the end of yesterday’s meeting, Knowles requested a moment to thank the Faculty for its support during his 11 years as dean.

“I am grateful to everyone who sits, and has sat, at the round table, to every member of the Faculty and particularly for the wonderful support and forbearance of the staff in University Hall and across the FAS,” Knowles said. “I have had a marvelously fulfilling decade.”

Knowles ended with a quote from Pope John XXIII, advice which he said has served him well during his tenure as dean: “See everything. Overlook a great deal. Improve a little.”

“Together,” Knowles said, “I hope we have managed to achieve all three.”

Following those words, the Faculty saluted Knowles with his second standing ovation of the afternoon, and the president brought the meeting to a close.

—Staff writer Kate L. Rakoczy can be reached at rakoczy@fas.harvard.edu.