Grade inflation isn't new at Princeton or at its peer institutions. But in February, the Faculty Committee on Examinations and Standing took a stand in asking all departments to examine their grading practices and to find ways to curb grade inflation and grade compression (a narrowing of the range between high and low grades).

The committee issued a report in which it compiled data describing the evolution of grading patterns over the past 24 years. Since the mid 1970s, there has been a dramatic increase in the percentage of grades in the A range and a marked reduction of grades below B-minus, states the report. From 1973 to 1977, 30.7 percent of all grades awarded in 100-400-level courses were in the A range; from 1992 to 1997 the percentage was 42.5. From 1973 to 1977, 19.7 percent of all grades awarded fell below B-minus, compared to 11.6 percent in 1992-97.

As for grade compression, the report reveals that undergraduates are generally graded within a range largely bounded by A-plus and B-minus. From 1992 to 1997, 83 percent of grades awarded in undergraduate courses in all departments fell in that range.

In its report, the committee blames grade inflation and grade compression in part on "intensely grade-conscious" undergraduates and the pressure they exert on some professors, who "find it increasingly difficult to give grades that students perceive as unsatisfactory."

No student gets a grade that is seen as negative, said Alexander Nehamas *71, a professor of philosophy and comparative literature and chairman of the Council of the Humanities. "Almost everyone gets a B these days," he said, "just by finishing the class....C has become almost the equivalent of an F."

It's incumbent on the faculty, said Nancy Weiss Malkiel, dean of the College and chair of the committee, to distinguish between competent and excellent work and to hold students accountable for poor performance. Grade inflation and grade compression, she explained, make it increasingly difficult to evaluate performance and make distinctions.

Reactions to the report have been mixed on campus. Several faculty members and students interviewed expressed concern that if Princeton changed its grading scale unilaterally it would hurt students competing for jobs and admission to professional and graduate schools.

Examining grade inflation is long overdue, said William H. Corwin, associate director of career services and a prelaw adviser; if deflated, grades would more accurately reflect student performance. But he warns that changes should be followed by educating employers and admission deans at graduate schools.

The committee, said Malkiel, has "no intention of disadvantaging students." Whatever Princeton does to curb grade inflation and grade compression, she said, would probably not be unilateral because its peer institutions are also concerned with the problem; she intends to encourage her counterparts at those institutions to discuss how they could all make headway on the issue. "Change, were it to happen," she said, "would be slow and incremental."

The Undergraduate Student Government issued a written response to the report. Today's students are stronger than those in the past, said USG president David Ascher '99. Any effort to create "contrived distinctions" among students "will be artificial," he added. If students get good grades, said Ascher, "it's because they deserve good grades."

In a Daily Princetonian op-ed piece, Maria Kubat '00 had another take on the reason for grade inflation: "Few parents and alumni would continue to subsidize a $30,000-plus education if their children are bringing home B's and C's, let along failing grades....Grade inflation exists for the purpose of producing marketable entrepreneurs."

Railings for Blair Arch?

To the chagrin of some students, the university during winter break installed four hand railings on the steps of Blair Arch for reasons of safety and liability. Then, in early February, the U-Council approved a resolution to remove the new railings. It did so after viewing a video shot by David Kessler '99 and narrated by Undergraduate Student Government president David Ascher '99 that showed local youths skateboarding and rollerblading on the stairs, using the railings to balance themselves. The railings, said Ascher, now pose a greater safety risk, as well as being a "real blemish" on the campus landmark. Their fate is now up to President Shapiro.

Lander and Rosen honored
Princetonians attend 83rd Alumni Day, listen to genetics lecture, piano recital

Some 1,400 alumni flocked to campus on February 21 for the 83rd Alumni Day. Under a cloudy sky, they attended receptions, demonstrations, and lectures on a variety of topics, including autobiography and the American experience, Melville's Moby Dick, civility in literature and speech, and the education of the modern artist. Princetonians also commemorated deceased alumni at the Service of Remembrance in the University Chapel, where G. Thomas Tate '73 delivered the memorial address.

One of the day's chief honorees -- Charles W. Rosen '48 *51, who was awarded the James Madison Medal as a distinguished alumnus of the Graduate School -- gave a piano recital in Alexander Hall. Rosen, an author and critic and one of the most widely respected pianists of our time, played selections from Mozart, Brahms, and Handel. A professor of music and social thought at the University of Chicago, Rosen is known particularly for his interpretations of Beethoven, Chopin, Shumann, and Liszt.

At Princeton he majored in modern languages and literatures, the field in which he also earned his Ph.D. In his remarks at the Madison Medal awards ceremony in Jadwin Gymnasium, Rosen recalled that he studied at Princeton because it was "sheer pleasure....I'm sure it was useful to me, but that's not why I was here."

Eric S. Lander '78 -- the winner of the Woodrow Wilson Award for undergraduate alumni exemplifying "Princeton in the Nation's Service" -- delivered an address in Alexander Hall earlier in the day. Lander, a mathematician, molecular biologist, geneticist, and director of the Whitehead Institute/MIT Center for Genome Research, spoke about "Human Genetics and Human Society: What Does the 21st Century Hold?"

Upon learning that he'd won the Woodrow Wilson Award, said Lander, he read Wilson's "Princeton in the Nation's Service" speech, made in 1896. Lander noted that in the speech, Wilson expressed some ambivalence about science, which he respected but thought should be confined to the laboratory. This vision isn't suitable to an age on the cusp of the 21st century, when science will be "woven into the fabric of social affairs," said Lander.

A primary example is his own work in human genetics. As director of the Human Genome Project at the Whitehead/MIT Center, Lander is part of an effort to completely describe the human genetic blueprint. The goal is to construct a complete catalogue of all human genes, which collectively make up the human genome.

As Lander explained, genes are spaced along strands of the DNA tightly coiled within chromosomes. The "code" for every gene is written using four chemical compounds, or "letters." Our genome uses some 3 billion of these letters to spell out the estimated 100,000 genes carried within the nucleus of every human cell. It is slight differences in the sequence of letters that determine different physical traits, such as blue eyes or brown and the color of one's hair, as well as a person's odds for developing certain genetically based diseases, such as Alzheimer's and some types of cancer.

So far, said Lander, only 3 percent of the human genome has been sequenced. "How much of human heredity can we explain?" he asked. "Only a bit. We're just starting." It will take until 2005 to sequence all 3 billion letters, he said.

The DNA sequences between any two people, Lander noted, are 99.9 percent the same -- they vary by only one letter in a thousand. Sometimes that's the difference between a normal and defective gene. By pinpointing the location of genes and decoding their sequences, the Human Genome Project provides researchers with tools to learn more about genetic diseases, and in some cases how to prevent or cure them.

Through their work on DNA sequencing, scientists have learned about genes that indicate a predisposition for certain types of breast cancer, colon cancer, Alzheimer's, heart disease, diabetes, and asthma, said Lander. In addition, they are looking for genes to explain some psychiatric diseases and personality traits, including manic depression, schizophrenia, and sexual orientation. Lander imagines a time when medical providers will sequence each person's entire genome to determine his or her genetic risk for various diseases.

This kind of knowledge, he observed, forces difficult questions upon individuals. A woman at risk for breast cancer, for instance, must decide if she will undergo a mastectomy or frequent mammograms. To prevent the defective gene from being passed on to descendants, she may elect to have her eggs removed and "genotyped" in a laboratory, then conceive in vitro using a healthy egg.

In addition to pushing difficult decisions upon individuals, the revolution in genetics will raise a number of issues for society, he said. One is the right to privacy. It's imperative, said Lander, that each person be the owner of his or her own genetic information. Another issue is determining whether insurance rates should be based on people's genetic risks. We will also have to decide if employers should have access to this information. Lander is most concerned with how genetic information will affect our "conception of human nature. There is a real danger of oversimplification," he said. "We must work very hard not to slip into a naive biological determinism, because nothing in genetics commands that."

Universities, in particular, have a responsibility to society in dealing with this new world. Lander called on them to build scientific tools to uncover the biological mechanisms that underlie our differences and diseases, and to inform the public debate about genetic information.

"We've only scratched the surface of genetics," observed Lander. "What we learn in the next century will dwarf the few measly things we know today. It's safe to say we'll have an extraordinarily detailed picture of the human organism and of our own genetic frailties."

Teaching center, awards ceremony

Alumni, students, and friends gathered in Jadwin Gymnasium for the annual Alumni Day luncheon and awards ceremony. President Shapiro announced a $5 million gift from publisher Harold W. McGraw, Jr. '40 to endow a state-of-the-art center for promoting innovative teaching and effective learning throughout the university.

The Harold W. McGraw Jr. Center for Teaching and Learning, which will be located in the new campus center, will serve as a laboratory for new ideas and a place to share, across departments and disciplines, teaching discoveries that have proven successful in individual classrooms at Princeton and other colleges and universities.

The center's activities will focus on bringing advances in teaching and curricular improvements to Princeton's classrooms, providing a venue for sharing teaching strategies, exploring novel uses of technology for teaching and learning, strengthening graduate students' teaching skills, and enhancing and facilitating undergraduate learning.

Richard O. Scribner '58, the chairman of the national Annual Giving committee, reported on the progress of this year's AG effort and the five-year Anniversary Campaign. To date, AG has raised $14.6 million from 30 percent of alumni toward its June 30 goal of $31 million from 63 percent. AG, said Scribner, is behind in its year-to-date goal. Just past its halfway mark, the Anniversary Campaign has raised $560 million, which is nearly three-quarters of the way toward its goal of $750 in capital gifts and AG funds by June 30, 2000, said Scribner.

Shapiro and others presented awards to alumni and students.

The M. Taylor Pyne Prize, the university's highest general award for undergraduates, was shared by seniors Shalani Alisharan and Julia Lee. The two will split an amount equal to this year's tuition ($22,920). They were selected as the seniors who most clearly manifested "excellence in scholarship, character, and effective leadership in the best interests of Princeton."

A psychology major from Vancouver, British Columbia, by way of Jamaica, Alisharan recently received the Daniel M. Sachs '60 scholarship, which supports two years of graduate study. She plans to earn a master's degree in neuroscience or some other branch of psychology, at Worcester College, Oxford University, with an eye toward an eventual career in academic psychology. Alisharan has been accepted to medical school at Johns Hopkins but has deferred admission to study at Oxford.

Her senior thesis examines neuronal characteristics of the ventral premotor cortex in monkeys. She has a straight A average and is considered a talented researcher by her professors.

Alisharan has been active in the Black Arts Company, both as a dancer and as the group's business manager. A tutor and project manager at the university's Community House, she works with local youngsters. She is also a board member of Stevenson Hall.

In accepting the award, Alisharan tearfully thanked her parents for providing educational opportunities for herself and her brother.

Lee is an English major who is also earning a certificate in European Cultural Studies. She hopes eventually to attend graduate school in English literature. She is writing her thesis on George Eliot's Middlemarch, focusing on the way science pervades Eliot's writing.

A dancer and choreographer with Expressions Dance Company for three years, Lee is also a pianist and a disc jockey on a classical music show on WPRB, the campus radio station. Through the Student Volunteers Council, she organized "Music for the Elderly," which sends student musicians to entertain at local convalescent homes. In addition to being a resident adviser in Forbes College, she initiated a "salon," a weekly intellectual discussion open to undergraduates and faculty.

Lee won a Martin A. Dale '52 sophomore summer scholarship to visit National Trust estates, study horticulture, and work in botanical gardens in England.

In accepting the award, Lee, of Los Angeles, thanked her parents, who came to this country from South Korea 30 years ago, and "sacrificed everything" for her and her sister.

The Porter Ogden Jacobus Fellowship was awarded to Claire Sandrine Jacqueline Adjiman, a graduate student in the chemical engineering department. The university gives the prize to the graduate student "who has evinced the highest scholarly excellence," in the judgment of the faculty. The fellowship funds the final year of graduate study.

A native of France, Adjiman's dissertation topic concerns theoretical and computational development of dependable optimization techniques, which can be used to design new drugs, to identify molecules that possess specific properties, or to design chemical plants that are environmentally friendly, energy efficient, and profitable. Her professors have remarked on her teaching and lecturing skill as well as her ability to raise the level of discussion in classes.

In accepting the award, Adjiman talked about "my American adventure," which has largely been shaped by Princeton. The university, she said, has given her access to research tools and intellectual wealth.

The S. Barksdale Penick, Jr. '25 Award went to the alumni schools committees of the Princeton Club of Southern California, chaired by Don A. Allison, Jr. '62, Linda Haitani '83, and Marshall Long '65, and the Princeton Alumni Association of the Northwest, chaired by Donald Smalley '72. The prize recognizes regional groups that have "most effectively realized the primary goals of Alumni Schools Committee work" in recruiting students and representing Princeton to its local community.

The Alumni Council Award for Community Service honored the Class of 1969 Community Service Fund. Established in 1995, the CSF's goals are to stimulate more community service by Princeton students and to provide members of the Class of 1969 with opportunities to become involved with both students and community service organizations. In 1997, the CSF funded 20 internships, including the Chicken Soup Brigade in Seattle, the Navajo-Hopi Land Commission in Arizona, Isles, Inc. in Trenton, and the Conservation Law Foundation in Boston. The Alumni Council established the award five years ago to "recognize outstanding contributions by groups of Princetonians in their efforts to address critical social, economic, and environmental needs."

The Harold H. Helm '20 Award for "exemplary and sustained service" to AG was given to Robert S. Murley '72. Murley has served as class agent, chairman of the national Annual Giving committee, and special-gifts chair for the Class of 1972.

The Class of 1926 Trophy was awarded to the Class of 1972, led by Murley and Class Agent Dennis B. Murphy, for establishing a new all-time AG record. The class raised $5,000,072 in its 25th-reunion effort.

The Jerry Horton '42 Award for an outstanding regional committee that has "expanded the knowledge and awareness of Annual Giving" was presented to the AG committee of New York City, chaired by Robert Ling '64. Last year its participation was 60 percent, its largest rate in 20 years.