Harvard’s grade inflation reform got wide coverage this past week, even from Town & Country and Seoul Economic Daily. Most stories focused on the details of the new policy. The more important story is the margin of the vote itself, which reveals an overwhelming faculty appetite for reforms to re-center academics.
The “vast majority” of eligible faculty participated in the vote to cap A’s at 20% + 4 and award honors based on Average Percentile Rank (APR) — an unusually high level of engagement for an issue many assumed faculty would avoid confronting altogether. Roughly 70% voted for the cap, and more than 75% voted for the APR change.
The depth of faculty engagement with the proposal has been visible since it was introduced in February:
All three FAS-wide meetings on the topic had to move from University Hall to a Science Center auditorium to accommodate the higher-than-normal faculty attendance.
Professors clearly evaluated each element of the proposal on its merits: two parts passed while a third failed.
Even much of the vocalized opposition reflected the same desire to strengthen academic rigor at Harvard. Physics professor Matthew Schwartz wrote a comprehensive proposal of a competing cap design (20% + 0.6*√(enrollment)), prompting Dean of Undergraduate Amanda Claybaugh to survey faculty preferences between the two formulas, generating more than 200 professor responses.
The faculty-led Classroom Social Compact Committee report, commissioned by FAS Dean Hopi Hoekstra in February 2024, had declared, “We support recentering academics at Harvard,” and explicitly recommended that the FAS address grading scales as part of doing so.
Writing in The New York Times on Thursday, professors Jason Furman and David Laibson framed the grading reforms as only a beginning: “For our new cap to work, we will have to show that it is part of a broader effort to improve education and learning.”
Wednesday’s vote suggests Harvard faculty are ready for that broader effort. Some student opposition to grading reform raised eyebrows, but much of it pointed toward legitimate questions about academic quality that FAS and Harvard College leadership is now well-positioned to take on:
Reforming the Q Guide (course evaluations by students) to improve, rather than disincentive, excellent teaching
Improving Expos 20 (the required first-year writing seminar)
Adapting to and setting expectations around AI use
Addressing in-class device usage
A year ago, the conventional wisdom was that Harvard faculty wouldn’t touch grade inflation. That conventional wisdom is now worth revisiting across the board.
Ask 1636
Send us your Harvard and higher education questions!
Q: Some news outlets are reporting that voting down the third part of the grading proposal means professors can’t opt out of the A cap. Is that true?
No. Professors can still opt out of the A cap by switching a course to the existing SAT/UNSAT (Satisfactory/Unsatisfactory) grading system. These courses are excluded from GPA, APR, and honors calculations, and professors must declare the grading system before registration so students can decide whether to enroll. The proposal that failed would have added a third option, “SAT+” (similar to a high pass), to the SAT/UNSAT system. The Chronicle of Higher Education and other outlets have since issued corrections clarifying this point and explaining that prior reporting was “based on an inaccurate summary supplied by Harvard's media office.”
Events
Virtual — May 28 at 3 p.m. ET: Jeffrey Flier (former Dean of Harvard Medical School and chair of the HMS Working Group on Open Inquiry) and Nadine Strossen (former President of the ACLU and Senior Fellow at FIRE) will discuss the working group’s recent report and broader efforts to strengthen open dialogue and academic freedom at Harvard and across academia. The conversation will be moderated by John Evangelakos (President of Harvard Alumni for Free Speech). Register here.
San Francisco, CA — June 10 from 6:00-8:30 pm PT: Meet HKS Dean Jeremy Weinstein at this HKS on the Road series event. Register here.
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FYIs
Harvard Endowment CEO Intends To Retire; Hellman & Friedman CEO Joins HMC Board
N.P. “Narv” Narvekar, CEO of Harvard Management Company (HMC), which manages Harvard’s endowment, recently told the HMC board that he plans to retire, according to The Wall Street Journal.
When Narvekar arrived in 2016, HMC had a 10-year annualized return of 5.7%. Since then, HMC has generated an annualized return of 9.6%, though that figure was boosted by an outsized 33.6% return in FY2021.
Under Narvekar, HMC significantly changed its investment strategy, staffing, and compensation structure. The share of assets managed internally fell from roughly 40% to 10%, with most assets shifted to external firms. HMC also moved from a specialized investment structure — where teams focused on areas like real estate or private equity — to a generalist model in which investors make decisions across the full portfolio. Compensation likewise shifted from team-based incentives to pay tied to the endowment’s overall performance.
Today, endowment distributions fund nearly 40% of Harvard’s annual operating budget, including more than 50% of FAS’s budget. (See our prior Weekly Briefing for more on HMC and the new 8% federal endowment tax.)
Harvard also announced Thursday that the Harvard Corporation has appointed Patrick Healy (AB ’89, MBA ’94), CEO of private equity firm Hellman & Friedman, to the HMC board of directors.
Harvard Asks Judge To Dismiss DOJ Antisemitism Lawsuit
On Monday, Harvard filed a motion to dismiss the Department of Justice (DOJ)’s March lawsuit accusing the University of violating Title VI of the Civil Rights Act of 1964.
Harvard argued the case should be dismissed because it alleges past rather than ongoing Title VI violations, relies on “isolated and diffuse incidents,” and revisits claims that were “already fully litigated and resolved” in Harvard v. U.S. Department of Health & Human Services (the University’s lawsuit challenging last spring’s federal funding freezes). Specifically, Harvard said the DOJ is reasserting the premise that the University “failed to take meaningful steps to address antisemitism following October 7, 2023.
Harvard also argued that the government “ignores” the University’s “extensive and ongoing efforts [that] are the very opposite of deliberate indifference” toward antisemitism on campus. Under Title VI, deliberate indifference means a federally-funded institution knew a protected right was likely being violated and failed to act.
Raymond Lohier and Sheryl WuDunn Named Board of Overseers President and Vice Chair
Harvard Overseers Raymond Lohier (AB ‘88) and Sheryl WuDunn (MBA ‘86) have been named the Board of Overseers’ next president and vice chair, respectively.
President Alan Garber (AB ‘76, PhD ‘82) said the two share “a keen interest in strengthening our visitation process,” a central function of the Board through which external committees periodically assess Harvard’s schools and departments.
Lohier serves on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit after being nominated to the bench by President Barack Obama (JD ‘91). WuDunn is a finance executive and former journalist for The New York Times and The Wall Street Journal and won a 1990 Pulitzer Prize with her husband, Nicholas Kristof (AB ‘82), for their coverage in China.
Lohier and WuDunn have served on the Overseers’ standing committee on arts and humanities and its elections working group (both chaired by Lohier), as well as the subcommittee on visitation.
Both Lohier’s and WuDunn’s Overseer terms end in 2027.
Proposed FAS Reorganization Could Cut Up to 25% of Staff
According to The Crimson, the Faculty of Arts and Sciences (FAS) could lay off up to 25% of its staff this summer as part of a broader effort to close its annual $365 million budget deficit and streamline administrative processes.
The proposal would reorganize FAS into a more “federated” model, shifting some administrative functions from individual academic units to centralized offices.
The plan follows a review by the Task Force on Workforce Planning, which identified major FAS inefficiencies, including more than 1,500 unique job titles, 60+ separate financial, HR, and administrative systems, and processes requiring as many as 67 steps required to hire a staff member.
Under the proposed model, some units would be grouped into “clusters” based on “intellectual alignment” and “shared technical needs.” Proposed groupings Theater, Dance, & Media (TDM) with English; Ethnicity, Migration, Rights, with Folklore & Mythology, History & Literature, and Medieval Studies; and Celtic Languages & Literatures with Classics and Linguistics.
More News
More News at Harvard
Harvard Divinity Bulletin: “Dialogue: Seeking Truth Dialectically” — conversation between Harvard Divinity School professor Jon Levenson (AB ‘71, PhD ‘75) and Princeton professor Robert George (JD ‘81, MTS ‘81)
Financial Times: “Next Harvard endowment chief faces a private equity hangover”
Harvard Kennedy School: “Harvard Kennedy School’s Belfer Center Launches Program on Diplomacy and Statecraft, Founded by Ambassador Nicholas Burns”
Harvard Law Today: “Harvard Law School expands resources for public interest work”
The Crimson: “Kerry Healey, Betsy Fischer Martin Among Finalists for IOP Director”
American Friends of the Hebrew University: “Hebrew University and Harvard University Announce NeuroAI Collaboration”
The Crimson: “HUPD Responds to Reported Assault in Lowell House”
Harvard Gazette: “Lee Rubin appointed faculty co-director of Harvard Stem Cell Institute”
Harvard Gazette: “Answering the call to serve: From first responder to alumni leader, David Battat ’91 brings a lifelong commitment to community to his new role as HAA president”
Stanford University Hoover Institution: “Announcement: Griffin Fellows—Hoover Applied History Working Group” — feat. inaugural fellowship with support from Ken Griffin (AB ‘89)
Harvard Magazine: “Meet Harvard’s 2026 Student Commencement Speakers”
Washington Post: “Harvard has a defense-tech incubator. Pete Hegseth should visit it.” — op-ed by David Ignatius (AB ‘72)
Harvard Magazine: “We’re All Harvard Influencers, Like It or Not” — column by Kate Kaufman (AB ‘27)
New York Times: “Nothing Beats Polarization Like Civics Education” — by University Professor Danielle Allen (PhD ‘01)
Boston Globe: “Keep politics out of commencement speeches” — by former Harvard Medical School dean Jeffrey Flier and Heterodox Academy president John Tomasi
New York Times: “60 Percent of Grades at Harvard Were A’s. Enough Is Enough.” — op-ed by Harvard economics professors Jason Furman (AB ‘92, PhD ‘04) and David Laibson (AB ‘88)
More News Beyond Harvard
Wall Street Journal: “Parents Are Fuming About Other Peoples’ Kids Getting Extra Time on the SAT”
The Free Press: “Stanford’s War on the Western Canon” — by Stanford professor Iván Marinovic
Bloomberg: “Business Schools Lure Executives With Fast-Track AI Skills, Alumni Perks”
Yale Daily News: “91 percent of senior class has used AI for schoolwork, News survey finds”
The Stanford Daily: “Stanford to begin exam proctoring following pilot program”
Higher Ed Dive: “Moody’s lowers Columbia University’s outlook to negative”
The Free Press: “Can a Jew Be Trusted to Prosecute Campus Protesters?”
College Board: “College Board Acquires MyinTuition to Help Students and Families Better Understand the True Cost of College”
Wall Street Journal: “A Master’s Degree Isn’t the Job Guarantee It Used to Be”
The Atlantic: “Something Big Is Happening on Campus” — by David Brooks
Wall Street Journal: “These Companies Say AI Is Reviving Entry-Level Jobs, Not Killing Them”
U.S. Department of Justice: “Justice Department Announces Formation of Advisory Committee on Anti-Semitism”
Washington Monthly: “Fear and Loathing in Palo Alto” — book review by Alex Bronzini-Vender (AB ‘28)
American Association of University Professors (AAUP): “AAUP Backs AI Data Center Moratorium”
Wall Street Journal: “Ruth Wisse, the Iron Lady of the American Jewish Right” — interview with Harvard professor emerita Ruth Wisse
New York Times: “What A.I. Did to My College Class” — by Stanford senior Theo Baker
Yale Daily News: “The death of college exploration” — op-ed by Yale senior Ryan Wang
New York Times: “A Defense of a Liberal Arts Education in the Age of A.I.: Making the case for a “useless” education” — “Interesting Times” podcast hosted by Ross Douthat feat. former Dean of the Honors College at the University of Tulsa Jennifer Frey
Wall Street Journal: “Why Colleges Are Slashing MBA Prices” — by the WSJ Editorial Board