Jobsanger wrote a thought-provoking post in which he takes retired Duke University professor Stuart Rojstaczer to task for suggesting that college has become easier. Rojstaczer points to grade inflation and provides evidence of rising GPAs. I almost always agree with Jobsanger, but I find myself with a different opinion on this one. In this post, I'd like to talk about some of the new pressures experienced by university faculty and how these may contribute to the grade inflation problem.

To frame my comments, I'll point out that concerns about grade inflation are nothing new. Universities have been concerned about this problem for some time, and most institutions track it. In the department where I work, we have to submit our grade distributions to the chair every year for this purpose.

Relevant Pressures on University Faculty

Among the many pressures experienced by university faculty that may contribute to lowered academic standards and expectations of students are the following:

• With inadequate funding and looming budget cuts, administrators become obsessed with student retention to the point where failing students are retained. This focus on retention filters down to faculty who find some students taking their class multiple times. The more administrators push retention, the more likely faculty are to make their courses easier.
• Faculty are more likely than ever before to be contacted by enraged parents to beg and threaten over their children's grades. This was almost unheard of 10 years ago, but has become commonplace today.
• Administrators are less likely to support faculty in grade appeals because of the retention focus, fear of lawsuits, and conflict avoidance. Their focus is too often on making the problem go away as quickly and quietly as possible. If that means a student receives a higher grade than he or she earned, so be it.
• At research universities, teaching has become increasingly marginalized as more universities are run like businesses. Faculty are told that getting grants is far more important than anything they might do in the classroom. This leads faculty to eliminate assignments that require additional time to grade.

It should be easy to see how these and other pressures create an environment where faculty are rewarded for lowered expectations of students and penalized for higher ones.

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