Ivy Infusion: Yale's 3.6 GPA

A YDN SURVEY found that Yale's Class of 2006 graduated with a median grade point average between 3.6 and 3.7. The paper asked 400 newly minted Elis to anonymously report their GPAs online, and 50% responded. (Props for noting the response rate could skew the results.) The conclusion's right there in the headline: "Poll suggests grade inflation."

Now, the poll certainly suggests that Yale is handing out A's like candy, but inflation? Don't you need historical data to support that? Yale hasn't publicly disclosed any grade stats since 1981, so the YDN's enterprising survey is the first light to be shed on the issue in quite some time. But it's still just a number—a range, at that.

The true test of this story's weight is still to come. As the YDN mentions, it was a 2001 article in the Boston Globe on Harvard's grading policies that set off the debate—and attempts at reform—here, so perhaps the same could happen at Yale. (Administrators are, of course, already privy to all the statistics one would need for such a debate.) You have to imagine students will curse the YDN, though, if Yale ends up following Princeton, which two years ago capped A-range grades to 35 percent of students in each course.

Oh, and former dean of the college cum Harvard gadfly Harry Lewis is quoted: "I'm very frustrated because we spent an entire year talking about [grade inflation] and not accomplishing anything and then congratulating ourselves like we did."

COLUMBIA REVERSED COURSE and reinstated the men's club ice hockey team, the Spectator reports, citing "a source close to the situation." As recounted previously on Ivy Infusion, the team's "STOP BEING A PUSSY" recruitment fliers offended some students, and the athletics department initially cancelled the first of half of their season. Now they're getting a different, unspecified, punishment.

Also at Columbia, a College Republican complains that the university denied his group's request to protest Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad scheduled speech there. Of course, Ahmadinejad never came, so it's kind of a moot issue, but a compelling opinion piece nonetheless.

REMEMBER WHEN RAY Nagin, mayor of New Orleans, was blasted for calling Ground Zero in Manhattan a "hole in the ground"? Well, let's see how people react to this fine comparison in the Daily Pennsylvanian by Penn's new top facilities manager (formerly design director for the Ground Zero memorial):

BROWN PRESIDENT RUTH Simmons addressed complaints about campus and Providence police at a faculty meeting, the Daily Herald reports. She said the school's police chief is reviewing whether to continue hiring city cops to run patrols on campus, following accusations of police brutality.

SPEAKING OF POLICE, the Cornell Daily Sun reports: "Police Prepared for Violence." Wait, is there a threat on campus? Well, no. But there have been a lot of school shootings recently, and, well, you can never be too prepared. Cue the guy with the gun: