The College Fix

Faculty committee recommends attendance policy after finding few students ‘prioritize their courses’

A new report out of Harvard University adds to concerns about the academic rigor of Ivy League universities, finding that classes are not a priority for many students.

A committee commissioned by the institution’s Faculty of Arts and Sciences found many Harvard students “prioritize extracurricular commitments over their academics,” The Crimson student newspaper reports.

“Many Harvard College students do not prioritize their courses and some view extensive extracurricular commitments as a more fulfilling, meaningful, and useful allocation of their time,” the Classroom Social Compact Committee wrote. “Most faculty view student curricular disengagement with alarm.”

The findings come amid growing skepticism by employers to hire Ivy League graduates, as reports expose grade inflation and students’ struggles to read a single book cover to cover in the course of a four-year undergraduate program.

Last winter, Dean Hopi Hoekstra created the committee in response to faculty calls “to bring students back into the classroom” and “complaints that students underemphasize academics and seek out easier courses,” according to The Crimson.

The committee’s report, published Friday, includes its findings and a series of recommendations to ensure students are attending class and learning. History professor Maya Jasanoff and economics Professor David Laibson led the committee.

According to The Crimson:

Though the committee did not collect quantitative data on extracurricular involvement, the group found in listening sessions that students frequently prioritize activities over their academics, Laibson said in an interview Friday.

“Students are hungry for pre-professional guidance and seek it outside the classroom and curriculum,” the report read.

The committee’s findings on student disengagement with courses follows several initiatives across the University aimed at refocusing students on academics. Last spring, the College’s Program in General Education updated its guidelines to standardize grading across amid concerns that students treated Gen Ed courses as easy A’s.

The FAS voted in December to amend the Harvard College Handbook so that students who miss more than two weeks of class will be placed on involuntary leave beginning next year.

In its Friday report, the committee recommended that instructors mandate class attendance — except in courses approved for asynchronous enrollment — and stated that professors “are under no obligation” to provide make-up opportunities for student absences, including job interviews and travel for athletic events.

Other recommendations included discouraging cell phone use in class and creating a standard grading scale, according to the report.

The committee also examined concerns about free speech and self-censorship on campus, both among students and instructors:

Meanwhile, graduate teaching fellows in College courses said they worried undergraduates attributed low grades to TF bias, rather than the quality of their work, and felt unable to provide critical feedback to students without jeopardizing their teaching evaluations.

The report proposed student and faculty handbook amendments that would explicitly bar grading based on political beliefs.

“Student speech, assignments, and exams can be evaluated by instructors as factually incorrect or poorly argued, for example — but a student’s status in a course, including their grades, will not be affected by their political or ethical point of view,” the new language reads.

Harvard, Yale, and other universities have been accused of grade inflation for years. Last year, Western Oregon University announced plans to abolish D- and F grades for students, The College Fix reported.

MORE: Nearly 80% of Yale grades were A’s

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