Princeton Faculty Group Recommends Axing Policy That Limits A’s

A faculty committee at Princeton University has recommended that the institution scrap its policy limiting the A’s handed out by each department, over time, to 35 percent of grades.

The group, which was formed last fall by the university’s president, Christopher L. Eisgruber, concluded in a report that the 35-percent targets were “too often misinterpreted as quotas” and made students worry that “they are competing for a limited resource of A grades.”

The policy was established in 2004 to combat grade inflation. Three years later, university officials said the policy was working, citing a decline in the percentage of A’s across the university.

The committee recommended that the numerical benchmarks be replaced by general grading standards set forth by each department. “We suggest that this sort of continuing conversation is a more effective and positive way of having an appropriate grading policy, and with fewer undesirable side effects, than setting numerical targets,” the report said.