Passed: May 11, 2011
Sponsor: Charles McCormick, Educational Policy Committee
Senate Discussions:
The Resolution
WHEREAS public publishing of the median grades for all courses on the Cornell website is used by students to select courses that give high grades, and,
WHEREAS this practice is contributing to grade inflation at Cornell,
WHEREAS the practice of posting median grades on the web is being exploited by external websites to match median grades to specific professors allowing students to choose those courses or sections with higher median grades (see www.aptstudents.com),
BE IT THEREFORE RESOLVED that Cornell will cease the public publishing of median grades of Cornell courses (thus removing them from the Cornell website), and
BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED that median grades of Cornell courses continue to be recorded by the Registrar and made available to persons with need to know (Deans, Department Chairs, etc., and persons needing the data for scholarly research, with decisions to be made by the appropriate Dean).
Background
