John invites us to contemplate “the wonder of grade deflation” at Boston University, whose administrators have pressured professors to conform to a curve.

But what’s striking about Samuel Freedman’s coverage of BU’s maverick policy is its “glass half-empty,” as opposed to “glass half-full,” tone; that is, what comes across is less praise of BU for its maverick courage than a frank acknowledgment of the cynicism with which most prominent campuses have allowed grade inflation to run wild. Writes Freedman:

[This] story of Boston University…becomes the story of the difficulty…in being the only honest guy in town…[S]tudents [because they are getting lower grades relative to just about everyone else]…have good cause to wish that the university cooked the books the way others do (emphases mine).

Let us hope for more such candid exposure of this and other entrenched corrupt processes on the nation’s campuses. For higher education is, as described in a report on grade inflation by the American Academy of Arts and Sciences (cited by Freedman), “a system that fears candor.”

If only fear can halt the devaluing of our campuses, then fear it must be.