“I don’t want an A at Yale to be seen as a lesser A.”
That’s what the Dean of Yale College, Pericles Lewis, said in a recent interview with the Yale Daily News. Lewis added that Yale is “looking closely” at Harvard’s faculty-led grading proposal and expects Yale faculty recommendations “within a year or so.” Yale’s flat A and A-range shares have been “very similar” to Harvard’s (Yale gave out ~79% A-range grades in 2022-23 to Harvard’s 83%). “We’re competitors,” Lewis said, “and so we stay competitive with them.”
This news reveals something important. As we've written before, for years, grade inflation has persisted as a collective action problem — not just within schools but also between them. No school wanted to move first and risk its students looking weaker on paper than peers who kept inflating (a fear Princeton students had in the 2000s that its faculty committee later found little evidence to support).
Harvard's new faculty-led proposal has changed that dynamic. If Harvard recalibrates and holds, it's the schools that don't act whose transcripts start to look like the lesser ones.
What makes this possible is the consistency with which Harvard has explained its drive to address grade inflation. Over the past six months, Harvard has been clear in public discussion that it isn't addressing grade inflation just for the sake of it, but because the current grading culture doesn't foster a campus focus on learning or rigor. That thread runs from Dean of Undergraduate Education Amanda Claybaugh’s candid comments to The Atlantic about how the “shadow system of distinction” operates, to the Office of Undergraduate Education’s diagnosis of a broader anti-rigor culture — in which 69% of responding faculty to a Crimson survey believe students don’t “sufficiently prioritize their coursework” — to the faculty-led proposal’s design itself.
Harvard’s consistency creates a dilemma for peer schools. Once a school acknowledges it has a similar grade inflation problem — as Yale just did — it faces a choice: accept a status quo where grades also don’t enable rigor (let alone properly distinguish among students), or recalibrate. Lewis is signaling that Yale plans to recalibrate, provided that Harvard’s proposal is adopted and goes well.
Given that grade inflation is a trend not only among Harvard’s peers, but schools nationwide, Harvard’s policy proposal also offers a usable playbook to all institutions watching: it lays out the incentives in play, the alternatives considered, and why Harvard’s proposal is different from prior approaches (like Princeton’s) that fell short.
And even if few schools follow, the internal case for a more rigorous Harvard that the College has built still stands. If Harvard’s proposal passes, the downside scenario is that Harvard gains a reputation as more rigorous than its peers. That’s not a particularly bad place to end up.
And Harvard’s upside is larger: a recalibration that started at one leading school, with a clear rationale and usable framework, that other schools find harder and harder to ignore.
Yale is already finding it hard to ignore, and Harvard hasn’t even voted yet.
Ask 1636
Send us your Harvard and higher education questions!
Q: How did Harvard professors handle the blizzard this week?
Most Harvard professors taught virtually Monday after Governor Maura Healey (AB ’92) declared a statewide emergency ahead of the blizzard. Harvard Business School (HBS) held in-person classes. For the second time, HBS professor Jeff Bussgang (AB '91, MBA '95) documented his HBS blizzard experience, noting “one of my students got here via cross-country skis.” During January’s blizzard, Bussgang thanked HBS in a video with his suitcase for even “putting up the faculty for the night so we can be ready to go for the start of the semester.”
Events
Virtual — March 3 from 1:00-2:00 pm PT: The Harvard Club of Southern California is hosting Harvard Corporation Senior Fellow (chair) Penny Pritzker (AB ’81) for a fireside chat. Register here.
London, UK — March 17 from 6:00-8:00 pm GMT: Meet HKS Dean Jeremy Weinstein (PhD ’03) at this HKS on the Road series event. Register here.
Cambridge, MA and Virtual — April 9 from 5:30-7:00 pm ET: Harvard Graduate School of Education is hosting University Professor Danielle Allen (PhD ‘02) on the role of schools in civic education as the United States approaches its 250th anniversary, with discussion focused on patriotism, pluralism, and democratic participation in polarized times. Register here.
If you find our newsletter valuable, please consider making a tax-deductible donation to support 1636 Forum’s mission.
FYIs
Harvard Professor Summers Resigns From Teaching Posts; Nowak Placed on Leave Amid School’s Re-Examination of Epstein Ties
This week, Harvard president emeritus Larry Summers (PhD ’82) said he will resign his academic and faculty appointments at the end of the academic year, relinquishing his University Professorship (Harvard’s highest faculty distinction) and remaining on leave until then; he also resigned as co-director of the Mossavar-Rahmani Center for Business and Government at Harvard Kennedy School.
Harvard also placed mathematics professor Martin Nowak, who was previously sanctioned for Epstein-related activity, on paid administrative leave “effective immediately.” The Faculty of Arts and Sciences (FAS) is opening a formal investigation into whether he violated University policies or professional-conduct standards.
Both moves come amid Harvard’s new investigation re-examining its historical connections to convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein following the Department of Justice’s release of millions of pages of Epstein-related documents.
Harvard previously commissioned an internal review of its ties to Epstein that culminated in a 2020 report confirming the University received approximately $9.1 million in gifts from Epstein between 1998 and 2008 and detailing his post-conviction access to the Program for Evolutionary Dynamics, which Nowak led.
In response to that review, Harvard sanctioned Nowak in 2021, including closing the Program for Evolutionary Dynamics and restricting his advising and research activities. Those penalties were lifted in 2023.
Harvard said “new information” about Nowak came to light in the University’s review of the newly released documents.
Harvard’s Enterprise Research Campus Opens Amid Biotech Downturn and Development Uncertainty
Harvard’s decades-long plan to turn its Allston landholdings into a major research-and-innovation district is running into both market and policy headwinds.
The first phase of Harvard’s Enterprise Research Campus (ERC) in Allston — a new hotel, apartments, conference center, and a 510,000-square-foot commercial lab building — is opening with the lab building about 20% leased, with Swiss drugmaker Roche taking that space.
The slower start comes amid a weaker Boston-area biotech real estate market, with about 70% of completed lab space in Allston and neighboring Brighton currently available for rent.
Harvard’s longer-term Allston vision assumed additional development around the new campus, but expanding and connecting the ERC to other nearby Harvard-owned parcels depends in part on a separate state-led effort to rework the highway ramps and rail corridor that currently constrain development in the area.
Massachusetts had won a $335 million federal grant for that project in 2024, but under the One Big Beautiful Bill Act, the federal government later clawed back nearly all of that funding. Bloomberg quoted a Massachusetts official suggesting the state may not receive new funding for that project until there’s a new presidential administration.
FAS Names New Dean of Administration and Finance
FAS has appointed Cornell administrator Warren Petrofsky as its next dean of administration and finance, effective April 20.
Petrofsky is currently the associate dean of administration in Cornell’s College of Arts and Sciences previously served as Chief Infrastrucure Officer at Penn’s School of Arts and Sciences where he “managed capital initiatives and organizational redesigns.” He will replace interim FAS finance dean Mary Ann Bradley.
He will be stepping into the role as FAS works to address its $350+ million structural budget deficit, redesigns its administrative workforce and cuts with the help of McKinsey, and implements other efforts like reducing PhD admissions.
Harvard Law Professor Henry Smith To Leave for Yale Law
Harvard Law School professor Henry Smith (AB ‘86) will leave the University to join Yale Law School’s faculty this July. Smith was previously a member of Yale Law School’s faculty from 2002 to 2008.
Smith, who Yale Law School dean Cristina Rodriguez described as “the most important property law scholar of his generation,” currently serves as the director of Harvard’s Project on the Foundations of Private Law.
DOJ Sues UCLA Over Alleged Antisemitic Workplace Environment
The Department of Justice (DOJ) sued UCLA this week, alleging the school violated Title VII of the Civil Rights Act by allowing a hostile work environment for Jewish and Israeli employees.
The complaint says UCLA “turned a blind eye to — and at times facilitated — grossly antisemitic acts,” and alleges that, before DOJ opened a Title VII “pattern or practice” investigation in March 2025, “not a single one” of dozens of UCLA employee civil-rights complaints filed after October 7, 2023 was properly investigated.
Over the past year, the federal government has taken several similar actions against UCLA as it has against Harvard in response to each university’s handling of antisemitism on campus, and has also made high figure demands in settlement negotiations:
In July 2025, DOJ issued a Notice of Violation of Title VI against UCLA.
The government proposed a $1 billion+ settlement tied to policy changes (including eliminating “identity-based preferences” in hiring, admissions, and scholarships), plus an additional $172 million claims fund for victims of civil rights.
More News at Harvard
Harvard Gazette: “Ballot order set for Overseer and HAA director elections
Harvard Magazine: “Harvard Faculty of Arts and Sciences Appoints a New Finance Dean”
The Crimson: “Harvard’s Computer Science Faculty Keep Heading to Industry. SEAS is Trying to Keep a Foot in Both Worlds.”
The Crimson: “Overseer Candidate Alfredo Gutiérrez Ortiz Mena Urges Harvard to Stay ‘True To Its Mission’”
The Crimson: “Nadine Burke Harris Backs Diversity and Equity In Bid for Harvard Board of Overseers”
The Crimson: “‘A Gray Area’: Students Say Harvard’s ‘Typical Assets’ Rule Leaves Financial Aid Gaps”
The Crimson: “‘I Love Both Institutions’: Harvard Veterans Caught in Pentagon-Harvard Rift Warn of Lasting Costs”
The Crimson: “After Shutdown and Scandal, The Harvard Salient Is Attempting a Comeback”
Harvard Business School: “Leading in the AI Era: A Lifelong HBS Journey” — feat. HBS Dean Srikant Datar and Senior Associate Dean and MBA program chair Tsedal Neeley
The Crimson: “Harvard Donors Directed Nearly $9 Million to Jewish Organizations Through University-Managed Fund in 2024”
The Crimson: “A Year Into Contract Talks, Harvard and Its Grad Union Remain at an Impasse on Key Demands”
Fifteen Minutes (The Crimson): “5000 Miles From Home: Trump’s Travel Ban is Keeping This Harvard Student From Returning”
The Crimson: “A Grade Cap Will Be Hard, but It Will Be Worth It” — op-ed by Sofia Mikulasek (AB ’27)
The Crimson: “Fixing Civil Discourse Starts With an Ethics Requirement” — op-ed by Ava Ribaudo (AB ’27)
The Crimson: “What Harvard Should Learn About Moral Ambition” — editorial by The Crimson Editorial Board
The Crimson: “McKinsey Must Cut Costs, Not Corners” — editorial by The Crimson Editorial Board
The Crimson: “Distinction Shouldn’t Require a Comp” — op-ed by Andrew Shlomchik (AB ’29)
The Crimson: “Admissions Influencers Have Gone Too Far” — op-ed by Sabrina Ottaway (AB ’29)
More News Beyond Harvard
Bloomberg: “McKinsey, Bain Rush to Hire College Interns Before Big Banks Do”
Cornell Daily Sun: “Cornell To Launch First Part-Time, Online Bachelor’s Degree Focused on ‘Accessibility’”
The Good Fight: “Daniel Diermeier on Why Universities Are Their Own Worst Enemies” — The Good Fight podcast with Johns Hopkins professor of practice Yascha Mounk (PhD ‘15) in conversation with Vanderbilt Chancellor Daniel Diermeier
Financial Times: “How China’s universities joined the global elite”
Columbia Spectator: “Columbia students criticize University’s handling of antisemitism at federal civil rights listening session”
Columbia University: “Kasowitz and Columbia University Announce Settlement of Lawsuit”
The Tech (MIT): “Faculty discuss new TFUAP curriculum proposal at February meeting”
Boston Globe: “‘Brain drain’ in effect as Harvard, Dartmouth, Cornell academics depart for Australian university”
Boston Globe: “With federal research funding uncertain, states debate new science initiatives”
Wall Street Journal: “These Schools Want Civil Discourse on Campus. Even That Is Up for Dispute.”
The Hill: “Education Department puts pressure on colleges ahead of upcoming student loan changes”
Knowledge at Wharton (Penn): “When Does AI Assistance Undermine Learning?”
SF Standard: “The founder of Khan Academy wants to create an alternative to Harvard or Stanford” — feat. Sal Khan (MBA ‘03)
Higher Ed Dive: “Washington University to acquire St. Louis College of Pharmacy”
Forbes: “MasterClass Gives The MBA An AI-Native Redesign”
Boston Globe: “Ending college affirmative action didn’t devastate minority enrollment but only shifted it” — by Boston University writer Rich Barlow feat. Richard Kahlenberg (AB ‘85, JD ‘89)
Tablet Magazine: “A Blood Libel at Penn” — by Penn Wharton professor Abraham Wyner
UT Austin Civitas Institute: “Politics and the Possibility of the Humanities” — by director of the Morningside Institute Nathaniel Peters
The Glenn Show: “Self-Censorship, Social Information, and the Conditions of Public Reason” — by Brown social science professor Glenn Loury