Civil rights commissioner Peter Kirsanow speaks at UA about civil rights and grade inflation.
U.S. Commissioner on National Rights Peter Kirsanow spoke at the Ferguson Center Tuesday night on grade inflation as a civil rights issue. Other speakers followed his lead, discussing the issues surrounding grade inflation. Alabama Scholars Association representative Charles Nuckolls stated that grade inflation has become a pressing issue across the nation and at the University as well. As a whole, the number of A's granted has increased an average of 38 percent in the past 30 years across the nation.
"There is an enormous disparity here at Alabama between colleges, where 80 percent of students in some colleges have A's compared to 11 percent in others," Nuckolls said.
According to Kirsanow, inflation is a problem at the high school as well as the university level, even at Ivy League schools such as Harvard, where 82 percent of students graduate with honors. He said it is also a pressing issue at open admissions schools because it lessens the value of a degree.
Nuckolls said grade inflation is the result of "consumer education" in an effort to convince students to stay at a certain school and even prevent lawsuits resulting from low grades and angered students.
"Academic institutions have become like corporations, and students expect grades like their payment for showing up," Nuckolls said. "Students ask for grades like workers ask for raises, but grades are not negotiable. Grades are a measure of success."
Kirsanow, a Cornell graduate, spoke specifically about civil rights and the importance of attitude and their effects on grade inflation.
"[Grade inflation] is a lowering of academic standards as demeaning as preferences in University admissions," Kirsanow said. "Grade inflation retards minority advancement while widening the racial education achievement gap."
According to Kirsanow, grade inflation distorts a student's confidence, causing major problems at the university level. "Grade inflation at the high school level is most dominant at low achieving schools, which are often minority schools. It becomes a civil rights issue because inflation derogates rights of minority students and all other students because there is no level playing field."
Inflation at the high school level is detrimental to minorities, who often receive a lower-end education affected by grade inflation, because they are admitted to top-tier universities that they are not prepared for.
"It would be much better for students to attend second-tier schools such as UC-Davis in an environment where they can thrive and succeed after college, opposed to unprepared minority students attending a top-tier university, not being able to survive and dropping out all together," Kirsanow said.
"When looking at the numbers of minorities admitted into top-tier schools, the focus should be on those who graduate and succeed after school because often those who are admitted do not make it to graduation."
He said that students, especially minorities, need to know where they fit, and grade inflation raises expectations of students, giving them false impressions of their abilities.
Kirsanow also focused on the importance of a change in attitude.
"It is time to embark on a renewed attitude of civil rights in the 21st century - that of a winner. If you gave a baseball player like Sammy Sosa four strikes because his family had tough times, that would be the biggest insult you could give a winner."
He said society does it all the time and expects fully formed human beings, which is not possible.
Kirsanow suggested adding rigorous standards at the university level to tackle grade inflation and the harm it causes minority students. He recommended such processes as having grades published anonymously to see exactly where inflation takes place and by what professors and ranking students by department based on merit. He said these steps would be beneficial to employers, graduate student admissions and to the students themselves.
"I thought it was terrific. Tying in discrimination to grade inflation is a really significant way to look at it. It's good that we are beginning to have these kinds of conversations at the University," said Steve Miller, president of the Faculty Senate.
Emmett Pollard, a student in the College of Engineering, said, "I agree that grade inflation is a major problem here because I know people who never go to class and have 3.5's and 3.6's. That wouldn't be possible in schools like engineering, where you have to study hard. It's a serious problem."
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