#3: The Law of Professional Apathy: They Just Don't Get It

Ask any student: B+ stands for Borderline, Banal, even Bad. Ask any professor and you'll wonder if you're speaking the same language: B+ stands for Barely Blemished but Basically Brilliant.

If you're looking for the iron-clad, universal law of the B+, this is it. Across the board, professors, tutors and TF's describe the B+ in exhalted terms. Is the B+ a good grade? "I think it's a great grade," bubbles chemistry professor Gregory L. Verdine. "It's a grade you would praise someone for highly," proclaims Harvey C. Mansfield, professor of government, notorious gadfly and grade-deflation guru.

"If I give a B+, I feel the student has done a tremendous amount of work," says Carol R. Saivetz. "It's not a slouchy grade by a long shot." Saivetz's attitude is common among graders. Threatened by accusations of grade inflation, tutors and TF's swim in aggressive verbal circles like sharks tasting blood in the water. Maxine Rodburg, preceptor in expository writing, sounds ready to bite. "In my class, people wouldn't see B+ as the average grade. I don't give them lightly." She adds, perhaps unnecessarily, "I'm not naive."

"To me, a C is an average grade. Therefore a B is a strong grade and a B+ is a very strong grade," says Henriette L. Power, lecturer in history and literature and Dunster House senior tutor. "A B+ is a very strong paper. I don't consider it the kiss of death at all."

But students aren't buying it. "No, it's not the kiss of death, but it's a peck-on-the-check of death. Sort of a whisper in your ear," Lump observes wryly. "The whole idea that a B+ is a 'great grade'--that's so bogus... That's just laughable. An A is a 'great grade.' The B+, that's a way that [graders] can flex and seem kind of tough."