Why university presidents are under fire
https://www.cnn.com/2023/12/08/opinions/israel-palestine-antisemitism-american-universities-zakaria/index.html
Fareed Zakharia:
American universities have been neglecting excellence in order to pursue a variety of agendas — many of them clustered around diversity and inclusion. It started with the best of intentions. Colleges wanted to make sure young people of all backgrounds had access to higher education and felt comfortable on campus. But those good intentions have morphed into a dogmatic ideology and turned these universities into places where the pervasive goals are political and social engineering, not academic merit.
As the evidence produced for the recent Supreme Court case on affirmative action showed, universities have systematically downplayed the merit-based criteria for admissions in favor of racial quotas. Some universities’ response to this ruling seems to be that they will go further down this path, eliminating the requirement for any standardized test like the SAT. That move would allow them to take students with little reference to objective criteria. (Those who will suffer most will be bright students from poor backgrounds, who normally use tests like the SAT to demonstrate their qualifications.)
Nearly Everyone Gets A’s at Yale. Does That Cheapen the Grade?
https://www.nytimes.com/2023/12/05/nyregion/yale-grade-inflation.html
Others worried about Yale’s grade inflation becoming public knowledge. They feared it could cheapen their degrees — or obscure their hard work to skeptical employers.
“If Yale and other Ivy League institutions start getting these reputations for grade inflation, students who were already feeling pressured to get these high G.P.A.s will then feel that their work is sort of devalued,” said Gustavo Toledo, 20, a junior who is majoring in political science and hopes to go to law school.
“This obviously doesn’t help,” he said.
Related:
https://yaledailynews.com/blog/2023/11/30/faculty-report-reveals-average-yale-college-gpa-grade-distributions-by-subject/
https://yaledailynews.com/blog/2023/12/05/singh-the-real-value-of-an-a/
https://www.cnn.com/2023/12/08/opinions/israel-palestine-antisemitism-american-universities-zakaria/index.html
Fareed Zakharia:
American universities have been neglecting excellence in order to pursue a variety of agendas — many of them clustered around diversity and inclusion. It started with the best of intentions. Colleges wanted to make sure young people of all backgrounds had access to higher education and felt comfortable on campus. But those good intentions have morphed into a dogmatic ideology and turned these universities into places where the pervasive goals are political and social engineering, not academic merit.
As the evidence produced for the recent Supreme Court case on affirmative action showed, universities have systematically downplayed the merit-based criteria for admissions in favor of racial quotas. Some universities’ response to this ruling seems to be that they will go further down this path, eliminating the requirement for any standardized test like the SAT. That move would allow them to take students with little reference to objective criteria. (Those who will suffer most will be bright students from poor backgrounds, who normally use tests like the SAT to demonstrate their qualifications.)
Nearly Everyone Gets A’s at Yale. Does That Cheapen the Grade?
https://www.nytimes.com/2023/12/05/nyregion/yale-grade-inflation.html
Others worried about Yale’s grade inflation becoming public knowledge. They feared it could cheapen their degrees — or obscure their hard work to skeptical employers.
“If Yale and other Ivy League institutions start getting these reputations for grade inflation, students who were already feeling pressured to get these high G.P.A.s will then feel that their work is sort of devalued,” said Gustavo Toledo, 20, a junior who is majoring in political science and hopes to go to law school.
“This obviously doesn’t help,” he said.
https://yaledailynews.com/blog/2023/11/30/faculty-report-reveals-average-yale-college-gpa-grade-distributions-by-subject/
https://yaledailynews.com/blog/2023/12/05/singh-the-real-value-of-an-a/