New Syms Policy: Grade Deflation
by Noah Davis

I have a friend, a bright friend, who will probably be a doctor someday. He attended a top undergraduate business program for two years and then transferred to Yeshiva. The impetus for his transfer wasn’t social or intellectual discontent with his university, but with its grading system.  He was consistently scoring low 90’s on his exams and receiving B’s and C’s. The culprit, of course, was a steep grading curve.

As a result of his consistently “poor” performances, the fellow decided to enroll in the Sy Syms School for Business.  “Grade inflation,” his thinking went, vastly outweighs being graded on a curve, so why not sacrifice prestige for a higher marks?  But higher marks are exactly what he won’t be garnering, at least not with the impending Syms policy change.  

In a recent interview with Sy Syms Dean Dr. Charles Snow, the question of whether Syms grades have been subject to inflation was put before him.  The dean responded by saying that inflation did indeed drive up marks.  But he didn’t stop there.  “The school does plan on instituting a stricter grading policy in that we will examine the way various faculty members give out grades,” Snow said. 

When questioned as to the effect of this policy change – particularly with regard to post-graduate job procurement, perhaps the schools’ major drawing point – Snow said that “this will not hurt our students at all because our students are hired because of their abilities and not so much based on their grades.”

Although this policy is in its most nascent stages, students are beginning to talk about it.  “Most of my classes should have been easy A’s, but it turned out those effortless classes are no longer going to be a joke,” bemoaned one Sy Syms student. 

Other students feel like they have already been adversely affected by grade deflation.  According to one student who claims to have an excellent GPA, “This was the first time a B has appeared on my transcript, and it was from a class I had never expected it to come from.  I don’t know what I’m going to do if this trend continues,” he said. 

But, by far, the most common reaction associated with the policy was: why now?  Indeed, if implementing such a policy is ever laudatory, it would seem as though the worst possible time to begin employ grade deflation would be during an economic downturn.  “I don’t understand why they are instituting a new policy.  Don’t they understand what we are going up against in the current economy?” questioned an irate Syms student, after having received a grade that feel short of his expectation.  According to another student, “It’s hard enough to get jobs as is, and OPCS isn’t quite known for their helping students get jobs.  I don’t understand why Dean Snow wants to make thing even harder for his graduates.  This is completely unacceptable. 

Student Leaders seemed to echo the sentiments of their constituents.  “The merits of grade deflation are questionable even when the economy is robust,” said one student leader.  “With the present anemic state of the economy, however, implementing such a policy is just bad planning, plain and simple.  Lets face it: Syms students can’t exactly ride on the schools’ reputation, so grades are all they got, and now Snow is taking that away from them also.

Although GPA’s are not the only factor weighing in on the hiring process, they certainly are considered a strong barometer of students’ seriousness and productivity.  Withholding the cachet of suma cum laude and other GPA distinctions, students will have to find other methods of contending with the fierce competition.  “Quite frankly,” said one senior, “I just don’t know how they’re going to do it.” 
Finally, grade deflation can also have an affect on the University’s overall standings.  One of the components evaluated in the US News and World Report’s ranking of universities nationwide was average GPAs.  A dip in that department could forestall Yeshiva’s garnering a higher overall standing.

Grade inflation, however, is hardly risk-free.  For one thing, the public can loose faith in higher education.  If word gets out that schools outfit students with disproportionate GPAs, then it is very likely that companies will deploy the appropriate countermeasures, ranging from firing the student and keeping a tighter watch on hirees from the student’s alma matter to blacklisting the university entirely.

It is widely believed that the faculty tends to dispense inflated grades to avert stress.  Many Jewish lawyers, the folklore goes, get their first taste of trial law when arguing with their high school teachers for an extra point on an exam.  Yeshiva insiders have also pointed out that teaches boost grades caving to the fear that students receiving low grades will issue complaints as well as low evaluations.  Both have been known to jeopardize jobs. 

In recent years, many committees have been formed to combat grade inflation.  Some universities have even gone as far as sanctioning those guilty of turning the other cheek.  At the City University of New York, for instance the Board of Trustees drove the Chancellor out of office for not dealing with the rampant grade inflation. 

In 1997, the Clinton Administration stopped requiring students to maintain a B-minus average for their parents to be eligible for a $1500 tax credit.  This decision is said to have eliminated the financial need for grade inflation to keep students in school. 

But grade inflation is not a thing of the past.  An article written in 1997 quoted a statistical report about Duke University.  If the grade trend it had been showing continued, it would grant A’s to all but 3% of students within the next 25 years.

In 1995, a study was conducted which surveyed the academic records of over 3000 institutions.  The study revealed that over the past two decades grades have actually declined.  However, detractors have underscored the narrow focus of the study, claiming that it focused predominantly on Ivy League institutions, which account for less then 2% of all undergraduates. 

Some scholars trace the roots of grade inflation to the 1960’s, when students were said to have pleaded with professors to assign them a minimum of a C in order to avoid being shipped off to Vietnam.  In 1967, 63% of students received A’s and B’s; today, that statistic has ballooned to 80%.  Scholars are not attributing this whopping figure to a more grueling work ethic.  Rather, they say that the statistic has escalated because all parties involved – that is students, faculty, and administrators – profit from dealing out higher marks.

When all is said and done both grade inflation and deflation have the potential to adversely affect students and universities.  According to one student, “The best possible answer to this problem is to ensure that a student, who attends class, does the work, learns the material and excels on exams be conferred a commensurate grade.  That way we won’t have to worry about this emerging mess.”  If only it were that simple.¨

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