“Rewarding bad behavior.” The phrase sounds like something Newt Gingrich would use to justify an attempt to lower federal unemployment checks. I can assure you this is not what this article is about. What it is about is how that phrase represents the greatest consequence of grade inflation at our university.

The basic idea of grade inflation is that overall grade distributions have risen over time, so there are more As and ABs given out now than in the past in the same classes.

The subject was recently covered in this paper in an article which reported that the average UW GPA has increased by more than 0.6 in the past 45 years. In that same article, UW philosophy professor Lester Hunt quoted his own research, which showed that in 1998 “95 percent of students in UW’s Department of Curriculum and Instruction received A’s as their average grade,” whereas grades remained relatively evenly distributed in the mathematics and engineering departments. These types of numbers leave little doubt our university is in no way exempt from this problem.

Here an objection is often raised that grade inflation is only occurring because students are actually working harder and getting smarter. If it is true students work harder and are smarter than previous generations — and I think it probably is — isn’t the goal of education to make people increasingly more intelligent over time? What sense does it then make to hold current students to the same standard as students attending college before the advent of personal computers and the Internet? As long as academic standards can adapt, grade inflation should not occur.

Much has been written about the negative consequences of grade inflation. The debate about these consequences usually centers on how it affects prospective employers’ ability to discern students with truly exceptional or even adequate capabilities or favors those who need certain GPAs to gain entry into graduate schools. Although these are valid concerns that deserve serious attention, they do not represent the most pressing or practically addressable consequences for our university.

The consequence of grade inflation most detrimental to the purpose of this university is that it allows students to commit and apply themselves less to their academic work while attaining the same reward.

It is important to note grade inflation is not an evenly distributed phenomenon within our university. Given the current grade distributions in the natural and biological science, as well as engineering and mathematics departments, I find it very hard to believe grade inflation is a problem of relevant importance in those departments. And if it is, students within these departments deserve it because any major in which 15 percent of students in most classes fail does not warrant a move towards grade deflation in any way.

What this generally does apply to, though, are those classes within the soft sciences and humanities. The prevalence of grade inflation within these departments is summed up in a passage of a 2004 New York Times article:

“English departments have basically worked on the A/B binary system for some time: A’s and A-minuses for the best students, B’s for everyone else, and C’s, D’s and F’s for students who miss half the classes or threaten their teachers with bodily harm.”

There is no reason that getting an A in an English, philosophy or history course should be any less challenging then in a chemistry, biology or engineering course — or any more prevalent. Yet, it is — usually on both counts.

This is where the problem arises. When a student becomes aware high grades in a course or department are more common and thus less challenging to attain, he or she corrects study habits to reflect this. It is not that the subjects are inherently any easier — students know less mastery of the subject is expected to receive high marks. This is how, at a university considered a “public ivy,” a majority of students in entire departments are commonly able to earn an A in a class by only studying for exams the night before or without even reading the assigned material.

What this all adds up to is the creation of incentives which undermine a flagship university’s purpose to vigorously challenge individuals to develop the intellectual capacities to work in elite jobs and make complex assessments and decisions for the rest of their lives.

This is not meant to be some kind of frontal assault on the humanities. I am as strong an advocate of the importance of the humanities as any. It is because of that support I believe grade inflation is robbing the humanities of their vital potential.

The fact is a university like ours should be more like an academic boot camp than a high school Advanced Placement class, no matter what department you are in.

Alec Slocum ([email protected]) is a junior majoring in philosophy and legal studies.