Speaking at recent forums, students, faculty and administrators have disagreed on the significance of rising grades at Brandeis. Most have expressed reservation about reversing the trend, saying it may be implausible or compromise professors' autonomy.Professor Carol Osler (GSIEF), who spoke at a faculty/student forum yesterday, said there is inadequate incentive to curb the trend. "Even if there are net benefits to curbing grade inflation, it still won't happen, because no one has any incentive to speak up for curbing it, and a lot of people have incentive to speak up against it," she said.

The average grade rose .16 on a 4.0 scale between Fall 1987 and Fall 2001, according to the Office of the Registrar. This growth corresponds to about half a grade, with current students averaging just under a B+. Grades are slightly higher in the spring than in the fall, a pattern that Registrar Mark Hewitt attributes to students taking heavier course loads in the fall semester.

The issue of grade inflation surfaced nationwide last year when Harvard University announced that 91 percent of its graduates received honors in June 2001. Scrutiny of Brandeis' grading standards gained momentum in the spring when the Undergraduate Curriculum Committee (UCC) held discussions about possibly raising the minimum GPA for Dean's List from a 3.5 to a 3.67. Negative feedback from students - especially in the sciences where the average GPA is about 3.15 - caused the UCC to withdraw the proposal, at least for the time being.

Hewitt said that about half of grades at Brandeis are A's and A minuses, but that the number of D's and E's has remained steady.

In May, Hewitt and Associate Dean of Arts and Sciences Elaine Wong told the Justice that issues of grade inflation and grading in general would resurface this fall as the UCC considered what, if any, changes to propose. Hewitt said he felt a "community discussion" would be in order. There have been three meetings in the past few weeks about the issue, and students have been able to attend and participate in two.

University administrators have been reluctant to release specific data about grades at Brandeis, and even figures shown at meetings go back only to 1987. Hewitt told the Justice Friday that he did not have access to figures before 1987, and said he would need to ask other administrators before releasing specific data about grade distribution and averages within departments and throughout Brandeis history.

Professor Marya Levenson (EDUC) served on yesterday's panel. Grades, she said, should provide students with "feedback" on the knowledge they have acquired in a course.

"Mastery should mean and could mean that we have more students at the higher end because we have more students who have mastered the material," Levenson said. She added, however, "effort does not always equate to mastery."

A faculty meeting on Oct. 24 addressing the issue resulted in a mixture of perspectives, according to Wong. Faculty members, she said, offered a variety of suggestions on how to make grades and transcripts reflect both students' effort and knowledge. Some said that students benefit from understanding how grades are determined and what they reflect. Others, Wong said, felt that transcripts could include the average grade in a course, helping graduate and professional schools understand what individual grades mean. Many faculty said they were wary of the university mandating grade distribution - feeling too much regulation could hamper their academic freedom.

Some faculty expressed concern that students avoid classes that they are interested in but in which will not be guaranteed a good mark, Wong said. Students speaking both yesterday and Thursday echoed this anxiety, and made their own suggestions to encourage students to study outside their major.

Jeremy Hamburgh '04 and Class of 2005 Senator Michael Corwin served on yesterday's panel. Both told faculty that revamping the pass/fail system may encourage students to take more classes they are interested in but in which they feel they may receive a poor grade.

A two-tier Dean's List has also been proposed to distinguish levels of achievement. Hewitt said Thursday that 46 percent of students were on the Dean's List last semester. Many students majoring in the School of Science, however, say that even at the current standard, achieving the Dean's List is unattainable.

Creative arts classes receive the highest grades, followed by Humanities. Social sciences, in the past several years, have been comparable to the average GPA, and science classes have consistently produced the lowest grades.

Evan Guggenheim '04, the Undergraduate Department Representative (UDR) for Chemistry, was in line with science majors who spoke at Thursday's forum. "Brandeis happens to be a school where, especially in the Chemistry department, it's hard to get good grades so it is probably more frustrating for people who are going to medical school and need to worry about their GPA a lot more," he said.

Undergraduates seeking admission to medical or law schools expressed greater anxiety about grades than students looking to attend graduate schools. Nevertheless, some pre-medical students said they have not shied away from challenging or intriguing courses.

"I'm still going to get into med school," Castle Quad Senator and math major Pam Hoffman '03 said. "I don't care about my grades."

Brett Friedman '03, student representative to the UCC, said that feedback he has received indicated that students don't perceive grade inflation as a problem at Brandeis. In addition, Hewitt said that a rise in incoming students' SAT scores may suggest that Brandeis students are getting better.

"Most students would say these are earned A's and A minuses," Friedman, a UDR for the Politics Department, said.

Sarah Light '04, student representative to the UCC, disagreed with Friedman. Calling grade inflation at Brandeis a "problem," Light said policies about what grades mean would be beneficial.

"People are concerned because, while we have grade inflation, a 4.0 here is worth less than a 4.0 at another school," Light said. "If everyone at Brandeis gets either B's or A's how do you differentiate between a good student and a bad student?"

"I think the solution comes with having policies about what the grades mean and breaking away from the stigma that a B is a bad grade," Light added. "As long as we have that idea in our heads it's hard to admit that a B is a good grade."

"I'm not sure we're doing the students any favors," Osler said at yesterday's lunch. "All of us who have been out in the real world know how important it is to get that kick in the pants sometimes.