Government Tutors to Loosen Grading Quotas for Tutorials

Guidelines designed to standardize the percentage of honors grades received in the Government Department's introductory courses and tutorials may be loosened this year because the department chairman is away on leave, informed sources said yesterday.

Harvey C. Mansfield Jr.'53, professor of Government and chairman of the department, is on a leave of absence for the 1974-75 academic year.

Carol S. Leff, teaching fellow in Government, said yesterday she received grade quotas last year for her section of Government 20, "Introduction to Comparative Government."

The guidelines recommended that two-thirds of the class receive honors grades--A's and B's--and one-third non-honors.

Leff said that the grades in Government 20 did not follow this pattern, with more than two-thirds of the class receiving honors grades.

James Q. Wilson, acting chairman of the Government Department, denied yesterday that any official policy on grading exists for the four introductory courses, Government 10, 20, 30 and 40, or that there would be any change this year. "It isn't true now and wasn't true" last year, Wilson said.

"There's an obvious concern if one course gives phenomenally higher grades than the others," he said. "We might take a second look" at such grades, he said.