STAFF EDIT: Superficial Changes

Harvard University students are thought to be the best of the best among college students in the nation, and the university supposedly provides each of them with the most complete education available. However, as information begins to leak out about severe grade inflation at the university, members of the Faculty of Arts and Sciences are looking to solve this problem by raising the standards for a student to graduate with honors.

Currently, Harvard students need a B grade point average to receive some kind of honors status when graduating. In its ongoing process to end grade inflation, the administration is considering raising this bar in the area of a student’s major to an unknown average, while the GPA requirements will stay the same.

This change, while a step in the right direction, is merely superficial. Grading habits — not just standards — need to be changed if Harvard truly wants to correct the problem.

While it is nice to see Harvard acknowledging the issue and attempting to fix its grade inflation problem, raising the honors bar will do little more than bring back a little prestige to the distinction. Students will continue to receive the same high grades without the challenges they deserve from the country’s top university. Instead of producing some of the most qualified professionals in the nation, the school is producing a number of students who will enter the real world with nothing more than the distinction of having a Harvard degree.

One possibility is that raising the honors standards will provoke students on the cusp to work harder for the distinction. But if Harvard fails to work more toward increasing rigor in the classroom, students will lose out on the education they both paid for and expected. Harvard University students deserve the best education in the country, despite any challenges that may come with it.