College Shorts

Author: Andrea Gissing

Harvard's Summers apologizes for remarks

President of Harvard University, Lawrence H. Summers, issued a personal apology last Thursday after the remarks he made suggesting that women may be innately less able to succeed in the maths and sciences. The apology, given to a group of distinguished women professors who are members of the Standing Committee on Women, coincided with his efforts to convince Harvard faculty of his commitment to diversity.

Summers requested Thursday's meeting with the group after it reproached him in a letter on Tuesday. The letter said that the remarks he made to a Jan. 14 academic conference "did not serve our institution well." These remarks discussed how few married with children are willing to make the time and energy commitment necessary to hold top positions on university math and engineering faculties, and also that biological differences between men and women could explain differences in why women do not succeed in the sciences as often as men. Previous to his Thursday apology, Summers defended his statements, saying his intention was not to offend, but instead to promote dialogue.

Before the Thursday meeting Summers received another letter endorsing the standing committee's reproachful letter signed by over 100 of the 600 professors on Harvard's Faculty of Arts and Sciences.

Summers' spokeswoman, Lucie McNeil, said that the president thought it was a good meeting and that following the apology those present moved on to discuss a variety of steps the university can take to address diversity issues. Additionally, Summers is reported to be exploring ways of offering concrete concessions to women, such as establishing guarantees of new hiring, however this has not been confirmed.



Source: The New York Times


Princeton puts cap on inflation

Princeton University students will now have to work harder than ever to earn an A. Each department can now give A's to no more than 35 percent of its students each semester.

The crackdown on high grades is part of a national battle against grade inflation. Princeton's cap is the result of a move that students protested last year, but the university is not the only institution taking steps to control high marks. This year Harvard University will limit the number of students who can graduate with honors - in 2001 91 percent of seniors graduated with some kind of honors. Northwestern University has set up a committee to study grade inflation at its journalism school.

Princeton officials plan to mail out letters to about 3,000 graduate schools and employers to inform them of the new grading standards. This they hope will relieve students' fears about losing places to students at other schools where the grades being distributed are not been controlled. However, the level of competition between students is expected to increase sharply due to this change, especially in upper-level classes where there are fewer students.

Source: The Boston Globe