Inflation

Inflation at the grocery store or at the gas pump is understandable. According to Fox News, it is all Joe Biden’s fault and did not exist in those halcyon days when Donald Trump was president.

Grade inflation at supposedly academically-rigorous colleges is less understandable. My beloved Lafayette announced this morning that 150 Leopard fall sport athletes made the Patriot League Honor Roll having earned a 3.20 GPA. So much for the Dumb Jock stereotype, especially considering that there are only 320 fall sport athletes.

Is Lafayette the only school inflating grades? Bucknell had 174 on the Patriot League Honor Roll and Lehigh (Boo! Hiss!) had 142. Army and Navy brought up the rear with 53 and 77 respectively. Cadet and Midshipmen parents can’t complain that their extortionate annual tuition payment isn’t worth at least an A minus GPA.

The average GPA for fall athletes at Lafayette was a whopping 3.41. 36 fall athletes achieved a perfect 4.0.

Cranky Old Guy Ed has mixed feelings about this. It’s wonderful that nearly half the athletes exceeded a 3.20 GPA. But back in fall semester, 1965, only 45 of the 400 Lafayette freshmen made the Dean’s List with a 3.20 GPA. Every one of us had to take Freshman Composition, a writing course. Exactly one of us got an A in it. No one in the class of ’69 achieved a 4.0 until our senior year when five of us did so. Z.D. Jastrzebski, Head of the Chemical Engineering Department never gave more than three A’s in any course that he taught. Lots of guys bailed out of Chem Eng as a result.

Of course, Lafayette cost a whopping $3,000 per year back then. If that cost can inflate by a factor of 25 to $75 K, maybe the grades that kids receive can inflate as well.

By Ed Dufton