Gentleman's A

This year Harvard College was rocked by accusations from Kenan Professor of Government Harvey C. Mansfield ’53 that grade inflation was caused by affirmative action policies enacted in the late ’60s. Members of the Black Students Association stood silently in his classroom to protest Mansfield’s statements, which they termed “racist.” Both President Neil L. Rudenstine and Dean of the College Harry R. Lewis ’68 vociferously denied Mansfield’s claims and denounced them as “divisive.”

Meanwhile, Harvard students were left wondering what their grades were worth, given that every fourth grade at the College is a straight A, and that nearly every other grade is an A minus or a B plus. When Lewis released data showing the trends in grade inflation at the College over the past 70 years, it became clear that grade inflation was not a product of affirmative action. While there was a rapid increase in grades between 1960 and 1970, as Lewis pointed out, it occurred before blacks appeared on Harvard’s campus in significant numbers, and was probably due mostly to the Vietnam War.

Although Mansfield’s hypothesis about the origins of grade inflation has been discredited, there remains a lingering doubt in all Harvard students’ minds: do we really deserve such high grades?

Grade inflation may initially relax student fears of getting “bad grades” but has not eased anxiety in the long run. Instead, grade inflation has made every grade more important. No more can students brush off one class in which they didn’t excel since the marginal value of every third of a grade has increased exponentially.

On the other hand, grade inflation may help students become more rounded individuals as graduate schools, fellowship committees and employers are forced to look more closely at individual students. No more can grades be the defining mark of success as students increasingly bunch together at the top of the curve.

These are both the positive and negative aspects of grade inflation with which Harvard students grapple. None of us want to get bad grades, but neither do we want the good grades we earn devalued by accusations that they have been artificially inflated.

Mansfield may have been wrong about the causes of grade inflation, but he is not mistaken about its effects. Grades will always be an imperfect means of evaluating individuals, but Harvard’s system prevents grades from serving any productive purpose.