As administrators promised last semester, the issue of grade inflation has resurfaced; joint student/faculty forums have addressed the issue. Yet, this "community discussion" has failed to delve much deeper into this issue than last semester's discussions, which revolved mostly around several proposed changes by the Undergraduate Curriculum Committee (UCC). Both the Office of the Registrar and the Office of the Dean of Arts and Sciences have been tight-lipped about the subject, telling the Justice they prefer that some information not be published or pushing the responsibility onto other administrators.

We know that the average GPA have risen nearly half a grade in 15 years, but it is not clear what grades looked like before 1987. With this information unavailable, we cannot be certain of how extreme the trend is. And, should grades continue to rise as they have for the past 15 years, a Brandeis degree may eventually lose some of its value.

The University has historically compiled grade distribution data for every class, department and class year -- making this data available only to department heads. We recognize that perhaps making public grade distributions for individual classes may violate professors' privacy. Data by department, however, is not unreasonable.

Students work hard to earn good grades and deserve to understand those marks in context. Moreover, if grades are no more inflated at Brandeis than at other elite universities, we have nothing to fear from a comprehensive inquiry.