As the GPA and SAT scores of incoming students rise, so do the average letter grades received by Elon students each semester. However, many faculty attribute the distribution of more ‘above average’ grades not to a pool of brighter students but to grade inflation, a national trend disturbing to many Elon professors.

"We’re creating unrealistic expectations on the part of students - that success will always be easy," said psychology professor Catherine King. King recently spoke with Fox 18 news regarding the effects of grade inflation on students.

"We’re making individuals very vulnerable to failure," she said.

Over the past 10 years, the number of "A’s" and "B’s" in regard to the total number of grades distributed has risen from 57 percent to 68 percent.

"I do see it [grade inflation] occurring here. I know I’m guilty. My grades are higher on average than 15 years ago," Jane Romer, a French professor, said.

More striking than the 19 percent increase in " A’s" and "B’s" given, faculty say, is that the average grades are "A’s" and "B’s," rather than ‘C’s."

"When I was in school, if I got a ‘C’ I knew that it was average. If students get a ‘C’ now, I believe they would think, ‘Oh, I am failing," Mary Wise, assistant vice president of Academic Affairs said. Wise has worked in higher education since 1975 and attributes much of the problem of grade inflation to the "self-concept, feel good, less-critical of others" movement of the 1970s.

"I am quite certain that a lot has changed in the past 30 years," Michael Skube, professor of communications, said. "The expectations have been generally diminished. There is the expectation that students must be continually entertained."

Many Elon faculty recognize this growing trend within their department; one professor declined to comment to The Pendulum because the topic is "a touchy area in the department" and dealt with on a day-to-day basis. However, some insist they have not seen the evidence of such a trend.

"Have I seen expectations change? I don’t think I have among students," Rosemary Haskell, an English professor, said. Haskell has been teaching since 1985, and said there will always be students who want their grades to be higher. "I cannot say that I have seen a trend."

Others recognize that grade inflation is evident at Elon, but do not believe it is necessarily either a destructive or beneficial occurrence.

"I don’t know if it’s a good thing or a bad thing. It’s just a different set of expectations," Wise said.

Students now expect to receive an "A" for completing assignments and doing average work, according to Wise and many other Elon faculty.

"Expectations are higher from students," Romer said, regarding student’s expectations for her grading of their performance in her French classes. "That could be part of the national trend, because their friends at another school are getting "A’s" in similar classes."

Haskell, who feels that expectations have not changed dramatically, said she determines students’ grades based on performance, rather than a curve or other nationally recognized standard. Quality work yields higher grades.

"An ‘A’ ought to be superior or outstanding work, a ‘B’ above average and a ‘C’ average," Skube said. "I do know that I see students who got ‘A’s’ in College Writing and they can’t put six words together," he said.

According to King, giving students false expectations regarding the link between effort and outcome does not help students become successful adults.

"We want to make a real clear link from their efforts to the outcome," King said, regarding educators and the need to inform students about their true performance in the classroom. "Parents and teachers can show students those kind of relationships."

Some faculty members are concerned that if they took a hard line and others professors didn’t, they wouldn’t receive good evaluations or students wouldn’t take their classes, according to Wise.

"I’ve been at schools that wanted to lower that, but I think it is hard to do one school at a time, institution-by–institution, if we were to set standards back at a "C," not everyone would understand what we’re doing."

As faculty continue to give students more "A’s" and "B’s," students continue to misunderstand why they receive outstanding grades in one class and receive poor grades in another while putting forth the same effort.

"One time, I gave a student, not at Elon, a ‘C-’," Skube said. The student complained to Skube about the grade he gave her. "‘You don’t realize that things have changed since you were in college. What was a ‘B’ in college is now an ‘A’ and what was a ‘C’when you were in college is now a ‘B,’" Skube quoted the student.

Many Elon faculty said they recognize that students expect to earn higher grades in courses for the same amount or less work than they put in 30 years ago.

"I don’t mind so much students worrying about their grade, but I do mind that they are not concerned about what they are learning," Skube said.