The Declining Harvard Brand

Two decades have passed since Lawrence Summers got into something of a tiff over grade inflation in the African-American Studies program. Apparently, the problem was not limited to that program. It had become endemic at Harvard, whose presidency Summers assumed after he left the Clinton administration.

This much to say that Summers is not a member of the vast right wing conspiracy.

In 2002 the Harvard Crimson reported on the issue.

Grade inflation, especially Harvard’s high rate of honors degrees, could hurt Harvard students in the job market, University President Lawrence H. Summers said at a question-and-answer session with students Wednesday night.

Although he said Harvard is on par with other schools in awarding 50 percent A and A- grades, Summers said he is particularly concerned with honors inflation. The College awarded honors degrees to more than 90 percent of graduates last year.

Summers, a former Harvard economics professor, said he worried that grade inflation would make employers think twice about Harvard students who graduated with honors diplomas.

“We’ve got to be sensitive not to put Harvard students at a disadvantage,” he said. “We’ve got to make sure a student who performs well is seen that way by employers.”

Obviously, the current mania about equity is not really news. Harvard and other major universities have been practicing affirmative action admissions for decades. Now, as they say, the chickens are coming home to roost. The woke policies are now devaluing Harvard degrees. As the old saying has it-- Go woke; go broke. It’s the free market in action. This time, it’s the free market in reputation.

On this point, many members of today's Harvard faculty agree. Campus Reform has the story:

Harvard University’s student newspaper discovered that over 40 percent of faculty members believe that the school’s standing is worsening.

The Crimson asked professors “how they believe the University’s standing within higher education has changed over the past decade.” Professors were largely pessimistic about the school’s status: 41 percent say it has fallen, 53 percent say it is unchanged, and a mere 6 percent say it has risen.

Over 70 percent of professors — 34 percent of whom “strongly” agreed — believe that grade inflation is a “prevalent” issue.

If you admit a significant number of students whose standardized tests are not up to par, you can either flunk most of them out or you can see them gravitating to the lower rungs of the class rankings. If you do not, for whatever reason, want to suffer the problems that would befall you in those cases, your recourse is grade inflation. Apparently, equity means giving everyone the same grades.

The problem involves affirmative action, grade inflation and political correctness. Campus Reform quotes Harvard professor Harvey Mansfield's analysis of the problem, from 2013:

Campus Reform reported in 2013 that the most common grade at Harvard was an “A-.” At the time, Harvey Mansfield — who has taught at Harvard since 1962 — said that the grade inflation “represents a failure on the part of this faculty and its leadership to maintain our academic standards.”

Mansfield told Campus Reform that he agrees with the recent poll’s results.

“Harvard’s standing has fallen, and I would blame the three evils of affirmative action, grade inflation, and political correctness,” he said. 

“Affirmative action makes everyone doubt that decisions of hiring and admissions are based on merit. Grade inflation makes everyone doubt that standards of excellence are being upheld. Political correctness breeds an atmosphere of suspicion and aggressive intolerance.”

Harvard and other major American universities have been lowering academic standards for a long time now. It has finally gotten the attention of the Harvard faculty. Will this cause Harvard to change its ways? Given the current political and cultural climate, this is extremely unlikely.