Questions Linger About HLS Grading Overhaul

Just one week after Harvard Law School Dean Elena Kagan announced that the school would be switching to a pass/fail grading system, details on the transition process for current students remain elusive.

Although Kagan informed students last Friday that the new scheme would apply to students matriculating in the fall of 2009—that is, next year’s first-year class—the specifics of a possible transition are as of yet undetermined. A town hall meeting held by the dean last Thursday in order to gather student opinion on the time table for the new system revealed a diversity of opinion.

Addressing a standing room only lecture hall, Kagan prefaced the meeting by saying that “whether we did the right thing or the wrong thing generally” in changing the grading system was not up for debate. But the dean’s initial comments did not prevent a small but vocal group of third-year students from expressing their opposition to the new grading policy.

Though one of the goals of the simplified grading scheme was to reduce student anxiety, some students said that their peers would turn instead to extracurricular organizations in an effort to distinguish themselves. This, they said, would ultimately defeat the administration’s desire to allow students the time to enjoy the learning process.

“Harvard students are ridiculously competitive, and they’ll channel it into alternative factors,” said third-year student Jessee C. Alexander-Hoeppner, a member of the prestigious Harvard Law Review.

“We’re not qualified to pad people’s resumes,” Alexander-Hoeppner added, in reference to the students who determine membership in the law journals, which may become the new mark of excellence.

Another student criticized Kagan’s assertion that the pass/fail grading system would have no detrimental effects on the job search as a “very unclear blanket assurance.”

“I’ve had judges tell me flat out that they preferred Harvard students and put the resumes of Stanford students to the side,” said third-year student Alexander S. Del Nido.

Last spring, Stanford changed its grading scheme to a four-tiered system similar to Harvard’s, a move that followed Yale’s decades-old pass/fail scheme.

Despite the opposition from third-year students, the first-year students who made up the majority of students at the town hall meeting, had overwhelmingly positive reactions, according to Kagan.

“You don’t have any of the problems that the third-years have, who already have a transcript,” Kagan said of the first-years. “On the other hand, you could get all the benefits we think are attached.”

Of the 550 first-year students, 409 signed a letter to the dean praising the decision and urging its implementation in time to affect their class. Jonathan K. Bateman, a first-year student who organized the letter campaign, said he thought that many of the remaining students who did not sign the letter were simply apathetic.

The opinions of the 400 students would factor into her thoughts, Kagan said. Even as other students pointed out the uncertainty in the new system and the opacity of the decision-making process, Bateman said he was pleased with the dean’s responsiveness.

“I was very happy to hear that [the letter] had an effect on her thinking,” he said.

Relatively few second-year students attended the meeting—in part because many were interviewing for summer jobs—even though Kagan said she felt most uncertain about the grading system they will use. According to over 100 feedback e-mails solicited by the Law School’s student government, opinions of second-year students remain mixed.

“There’s definitely significant support on both sides,” said student government President David K. Kessler ’04, a third-year student. “There are many people who are adamantly in favor of the grade change applying immediately, and there are many people who think that the grade change should not apply to this class.”

The law faculty has held meetings on grading schemes since last spring, but it is unclear if and when the new system will apply to current students.

“We’ll try to give you an answer as soon as we can,” Kagan said to the students.

—Staff writer Athena Y. Jiang can be reached at ajiang@fas.harvard.edu.