Yale Faculty senate says new grading guidance should minimize student harm
The Faculty of Arts and Sciences and School of Engineering and Applied Sciences Senate Faculty Senate on Thursday unanimously passed a resolution on grade inflation, urging a Yale College committee to develop grading policies that keep grades meaningful while minimizing harm to students and faculty.
The College’s Committee on Teaching, Learning and Advising, which the resolution is addressed to, is set to release recommendations on grade inflation in November, Yale College Dean Pericles Lewis told the News earlier this month. A full faculty vote on that guidance is “anticipated in” December, according to a FAS-SEAS Senate press release.
“We hope these principles will help the Committee on Teaching, Learning, and Advising develop a policy that makes grades more meaningful, while also fostering the learning and intellectual exploration we want for our students,” Michael Farina, chair of the FAS-SEAS Faculty Senate, said in the press release.
The resolution comes after Yale and other Ivy League institutions have identified grade inflation as a concern in the past year. As the document notes, in April, the University’s Committee on Trust in Higher Education recommended that Yale establish GPA guidelines of “a 3.0 mean, or some other college-wide standard,” and provide percentile rankings for students.
