The American Spectator

Reader Mail

(Page 2 of 3)

Violating "the spirit, if not the letter, of President Obama's ambitious ethics requirements"?

You're kidding, right? What ethics requirements?

Remember: Everything Barack Hussein Obama has said, says and will say has an expiration date. Everything.

And even though neo-Marxist Obama and his gang—not administration, gang—has begun their Sherman-like march through American culture, our Constitution and its freedoms, banking institutions and more with an intentional malice not seen in any incoming new administration, it doesn't seem to bother most Americans that he's already vying for, if not already won, the title of the most corrupt and anti-American politician to ever become America's chief executive.

That's because, at least in my opinion, he's simply a collective reflection of the amorality and lack of ethics of those, including the advocacy/adversary media, Tinsel Town and Left Coast, who elected him.
-- C. Kenna Amos
Princeton, W.Va.

Hypocrisy seems to be highly contagious; almost everyone who goes to Washington catches a dose rather quickly.  Strangely though, it is the electorate that is sick and suffering. 
-- Ira M. Kessel   
Rochester, New York

NEW SCHOOL TIES
Re: Ken Blackwell's Not Making the Grade:

Grade inflation damages a university and its students several ways, especially in the eyes of potential employers of a university's students. When grades are inflated, businesses find it more difficult to identify superior and qualified students to fill positions. A student cannot distinguish herself/himself from her/his peers.

I proposed the following steps to reduce grade inflation to my provost:
1. Identify and reward professors who do not inflate grades.
2. Eliminate the conflict of interest that rewards professors for grade inflation. With the status quo, professors who inflate grades are more likely to get high student evaluations and are more likely to be rewarded by admin.
3. Recognize that student evaluations are not pure numbers. A normalized number is a pure number.
4. To obtain a pure number for student evaluations of a professor, I recommend the following ratio: student evaluation / class average grade.

To clarify steps 3 and 4, the following examples may help: If the student evaluation of the professor is 4.4 and the class average grade is 2 (=C), then the pure evaluation of the professor becomes 2.2.

If the student evaluation is 4.4 and the class average grade is 4 (=A, inflated), then the pure evaluation of the professor becomes 1.1.

If the student evaluation is 3.6 and the class average grade is 4, then the pure evaluation of the professor becomes 0.9.

If the student evaluation is 3.6 and the class average grade is 2, then the pure evaluation of the professor becomes 1.8.

Thus a pure evaluation will motivate professors to assign truly earned grades rather than give inflated grades. From the admin viewpoint, a pure evaluation greater than one is desirable for a professor. To scientists, mathematicians, and engineers, pure (non-dimensional) numbers are much more useful and significant.

Employers would benefit from honest grades. Universities and students would too. Although it would benefit all of society, only a bold and creative administration would take the steps necessary to stem grade inflation.
-- Roy Henk, PhD, P.E.
Professor of Science and Engineering