Word: pass-fail
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Harvard Law School will be moving to a pass-fail grading system in the fall of 2009, joining peer institutions such as Yale and Stanford, Dean Elena Kagan announced in an e-mail to students this afternoon...
According to the e-mail, there will be more discussion about whether any current students will be allowed to switch over to the pass-fail system. Kagan said she would hold a "town hall" meeting in early October to consider the issue further...
Unfortunately, Harvard’s pass-fail option has changed little since then. It was revolutionary in 1967, before the introduction of similar programs at some peer institutions like Brown and Princeton, but it is unimpressive today. Though students can supposedly opt for as many pass-fail courses as they want (though rarely more than one per semester), concentration credit policy is still subject to departmental whims...
...educational luminary that supposedly encourages the pursuit of “veritas,” Harvard’s Faculty should liberalize the pass-fail option by mandating concentration credit policy for pass-fail courses in all departments. Departments should accept any relevant courses for concentration credit—whether those courses are letter-graded or not—with the exception of foundational or introductory courses. Right now, the risk-taking it was meant to encourage remains limited purely to students’ electives, and has little impact on our serious academic pursuits, which all count towards the tyrannical...
Most concentrations at the College only grant one or two pass-fail concentration credits, with few exceptions. This allows little opportunity for academic exploration, despite the advantages it would bring. The ability—and desire—to pursue studies in unknown or challenging areas is fundamental to creating the broad and inquisitive perspective necessary for genuine scholarship. Indeed, this is the goal of a liberal arts education, “an education conducted in a spirit of free inquiry undertaken without concern for topical relevance or vocational utility,” as the Task Force on General Education...