For the first time since Harvard College began its push to recenter academics through rigor, we have a real datapoint that things are moving in the right direction. After the College urged faculty to restore rigor, Dean of Undergraduate Education Amanda Claybaugh announced this week that the share of flat-A grades dropped from 60.2% to 53.4% — a nearly seven-point decline.

That shift is notable on its own. It’s especially striking because it comes before the College has put out a formal set of recommendations to address the issue of grade inflation; that is expected in the spring. 

But the more important line in Claybaugh’s email to faculty may not be the percentage. It’s the incentive change she signaled alongside it: an assurance that course difficulty — not just student evaluations — will be taken into account in faculty reviews.

That matters because ever since Harvard's grade inflation problem was acknowledged in the University's own report and is now known nationwide, the problem isn't sustained by ignorance; it's sustained by fear.

Faculty broadly agree that grade inflation is an issue and that work caliber has declined, but many hesitate to act unilaterally when the costs are personal and immediate if others don’t follow: lower evaluations, weaker enrollments, and reputational risk.

Those risks fall especially heavily on non-tenure-track (NTT) faculty, for whom student evaluations and course demand can shape contract renewals, teaching assignments, and future academic opportunities. This means the risks are further concentrated in certain College programs that are heavily reliant on NTTs, like the College’s two honors concentrations, Social Studies and History & Literature, and the mandatory first-year writing course Expos 20. 

Claybaugh’s assurance this week helps relieve one of the key blockers to re-centering academics on the faculty side, but it’s also only one piece of a broader collective action challenge. On the student side, grade inflation is sustained by fear that anything less than a near-perfect GPA will harm job or graduate school prospects. It’s a fear reinforced by the fact that employers and admissions offices often struggle to interpret transcripts when an A has lost its signal.

As the College prepares to release its formal recommendations this spring, it should ensure, and communicate how, its recommendations address these collective action pressures directly. This week’s early data suggest reform is possible. Sustaining it will require continued alignment: between rhetoric and incentives, and between diagnosis and follow-through.

Ask 1636

Send us your Harvard and higher education questions!

Q: What is the IOP? Why is it at the Kennedy School if it's for College students?

Harvard’s Institute of Politics (IOP) is a nonpartisan center that connects undergraduates with politics and public service. It offers internships, speaker series, and access to high-profile practitioners through its Fellows program, where political leaders run study groups alongside students (which we wrote about in last week’s Big Idea). The IOP is housed at HKS because it was established in 1966 with the same gift that founded the school, but its mission has always been to engage College students in the practice of politics.

Events

  • San Francisco, CA — February 10 from 5:30-7:00 p.m. ET: HBS and the HBS Association of Northern California are hosting a reception for recent alumni (MBA ‘16-26) with members of HBS senior leadership. Register here.

  • Virtual & Boston, MA — February 12 from 6:45-7:45 p.m. ET: HBS Executive Dean for Administration Angela Crispi will present “The Business of Harvard Business School” a behind-the-scenes look for alumni at how HBS is navigating change in higher education, technology, and its own campus footprint. Register here.

  • Virtual & Cambridge, MA — February 18 from 5:00-6:30 p.m. ET: Harvard’s Graduate School of Education (HGSE) is hosting a conversation between Harvard Government professor Michael Sandel and HGSE Dean Nonie Lesaux to discuss meritocracy, education, and democracy — themes in Sandel’s new book The Tyranny of Merit and Democracy’s Discontent. Register here. 

  • Cambridge, MA — February 25 from 6:00-8:30 p.m. ET: Meet Harvard Kennedy School dean Jeremy Weinstein (PhD ’03) at this HKS on the Road series event. Prior to Weinstein’s talk, U.S. Secretary of Energy Ernest Moniz and HKS Professor Meghan O’Sullivan will be discussing nuclear policy. Register here.

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FYIs

HBS FY25 Report Released: $58 Million Surplus, 17% Decline in New Gifts and Pledges

  • HBS has released its FY25 Annual Report including its Financial Statements and Key Metrics. 

  • The school reported a $58 million operating surplus, up 61% from $36 million in FY24. Revenues rose 3% to $1.13 billion; expenses increased 1% to $1.07 billion.

  • More than half of HBS’s revenue came from publishing ($300 million), Executive Education ($253 million), and HBS Online ($63 million). The endowment distribution also contributed $232 million, or ~20%. 

  • New gifts and pledges fell 17% year over year, from $145 million in FY24 to $121 million in FY25.

  • Unrestricted reserves also declined 27% to $189 million primarily due to capital spending. For the 17th straight year, HBS took on no new debt, funding projects through reserves, internally generated cash, and philanthropic support. 

  • HBS’s Key Metrics indicate that since 2022, faculty book publications have decreased nearly 64%, from 22 books to 8. HBS’s 2025 acceptance rate (12%) and yield (85%) are generally on par with the past five years.

HLS Appoints Permanent Dean of Students

  • Harvard Law School (HLS) has appointed Monica Monroe as its permanent dean of students. Monroe, who had served in the role on an interim basis since August, will also continue as associate dean overseeing the Office of Community Engagement, Equity, and Belonging (CEEB), which she has led since 2022.

  • Her appointment follows a student-services restructuring announced last summer that merged CEEB with the Dean of Students Office. Monroe will oversee student advising, organizations, and journals, as well as efforts to foster dialogue and belonging across difference.

  • She succeeds Stephen Ball (JD ’10), who left the role to return to the private sector. During Ball’s tenure, he and Monroe jointly issued several statements clarifying protest restrictions and prohibiting unauthorized protests in HLS’s Haas Lounge. 

Federal Rule Ties Universities’ Financial Aid Eligibility to Post-Grad Earnings

  • A rulemaking committee convened by the U.S. Department of Education (ED) advanced a new “accountability test” that would revoke federal aid from college programs whose graduates earn below a set threshold four years after graduation. Congress authorized the rule in 2025 as part of the One Big Beautiful Bill Act.

  • Undergraduate programs must exceed the median salary of high school graduates; graduate programs must exceed that of comparable bachelor’s programs.

  • Programs that fail the test for two consecutive years risk losing access to federal student loans. Colleges with a high share of failing programs could also lose Pell Grant eligibility.

  • Just 1.2% of bachelor’s programs would fail under current data, but failure rates are higher in the arts: 15% of studio art and 16% of theater programs fall below the benchmark.

  • Colleges must begin reporting program-level data in 2027, but full implementation is delayed until July 2028 due to staffing shortages at ED.

Columbia Appoints New President and New Title VI Compliance Monitor

  • Columbia has named Jennifer Mnookin, the current chancellor of the University of Wisconsin Madison, as its next president effective July 2026. She succeeds interim president Claire Shipman, who took over after Nemouche Shafik resigned amid backlash over her handling of campus protests.

  • Mnookin also navigated campus protests of the same era: at Wisconsin, she authorized police to dismantle a Spring 2024 encampment, then negotiated with students to end a second one.

  • Separately, Columbia announced it has replaced its independent monitor Bart Schwartz with litigator Charles Cooper to oversee compliance with its $221 million federal agreement over antisemitism-related Title VI violations. 

  • The university said the change was made “for administrative and logistical reasons” and was mutually agreed upon with the DOJ. The Free Press reports the change may stem from disputes over scope: Schwartz reportedly sought expanded access and legal support, while Columbia may have withheld data or lacked documentation he requested.

Report: A Small Number of Private Foundations Shape Humanities and Social Sciences Research

  • A new analysis by the American Enterprise Institute (AEI) shows that private foundations have outsized influence in the humanities, arts, and social sciences fields (HASS), where federal and private funding are roughly equal. In STEM, by contrast, federal dollars outpace private funding 16 to 1.

  • HASS private foundation funding is also highly concentrated. Just 0.16% of total U.S. higher ed revenue — about $1.2 billion — comes from foundations supporting HASS, according to AEI’s review of 600,000+ IRS filings. Yet 80% of this disclosed funding came from just 25 foundations.

  • Grant language analysis shows progressive themes appear eight times more often in HASS grants than in STEM grants (27.8% vs. 3.4%), while conservative themes received negligible support.

  • In “resource-scarce fields, institutions providing the ‘marginal dollar’ exert influence” not only in what research is directly funded, but also builds the infrastructure (centers, journals, conferences) that determines which scholars and ideas gain long-term visibility and influence.

More News

More News at Harvard

  • U.S. Senate Committee on Health, Education, Labor & Pensions: “Chair Cassidy Launches Inquiry into Students’ Declining Math Scores, Preparedness for College”

  • Yale School of Management: “Yale Chief Executive Leadership Institute Presents Alan M. Garber, 31st President of Harvard University, with the Yale Legend in Leadership Award”

  • The Crimson: “Harvard to Mandate Swipe Access in All FAS Buildings Through Spring Semester”

  • The Crimson: “Harvard Offers to Remove Time Caps for Preceptors and Lecturers in Exchange for Higher Course Load Requirements”

  • Harvard Kennedy School: “Students reflect on the impact and opportunity of state and local programs”

  • The Crimson: “Biotech Giant Roche To Triple Investment Footprint on Harvard’s Enterprise Research Campus”

  • The Crimson: “Harvard Impacts Labs Awards $1.4 Million to Support Four New Projects”

  • Yale Daily News: “Yale joins brief backing Harvard’s international students lawsuit”

  • The Crimson: “Anthony Campbell Built a Career in New Haven Policing. Then Harvard Called.”

  • The Crimson: “Harvard Needs a Philosophy of Grading” — editorial by The Crimson Editorial Board

  • The Crimson: “Why Act When You Can Task Force Instead?” — op-ed by Taylor Beljon-Regen (AB ‘29)

  • The Crimson: “Harvard Is Too Old” — op-ed by Alex Bronzini-Vender (AB ‘28)

  • The Crimson: “Harvard Should Do More for Pre-Law Students” — op-ed by Michael Isayan (AB ‘29)

More News Beyond Harvard

  • Bloomberg: “Billionaire Dave Duffield Pledges Record $372 Million to Cornell” 

  • Bloomberg: “Yale’s Famed Investing Model Falters at a Fraught Time for Colleges”

  • CTInsider: “Yale will cut graduate student enrollment due to federal endowment tax hike, dean says”

  • Brown Daily Herald: “Some minority students less comfortable reporting harassment, discrimination, campus survey finds”

  • Yale Daily News: “English professors double down on requiring printed copies of readings”

  • Vanderbilt Hustler: “Vanderbilt continues to provide feedback to federal government as new higher education compact is drafted”

  • Jewish Insider: “Newly released memos reveal State Dept. concerns about basis for student deportations”

  • Wall Street Journal (gift link): “Is a Four-Year Degree Worth It?” — op-ed by Dartmouth President Sian Beilock

  • New York Times: “What Science Tells Us About Arguing With Your Father-in-Law” — by HKS Professor Julia Minson (AB ‘99)

  • eJewishPhilanthropy: “To combat hate, we need more than coordination — we need an interdisciplinary approach” — op-ed by director of the Bard Center for the Study of Hate Kenneth Stern

  • Wall Street Journal: “Does Qatar Fund Antisemitism at American Campuses?” — op-ed by Kenneth Marcus, founder of the Brandeis Center for Human Rights Under Law

  • Washington Post: “White biologist sues Cornell, alleging illegal race-based hiring”

  • AEI: “Five Reasons Viewpoint Diversity Makes Academic Sense” — by American Enterprise Institute senior fellows Jenna Silber Storey and Benjamin Storey

  • National Affairs: “Closed Classrooms” — essay by Claremont McKenna government professor Jon Shields and visiting Claremont McKenna government professor Stephanie Muravchik