A letter from Dean of Wharton, regarding the grading policy

As many of you are aware, at yesterday's meeting of the Wharton faculty, the MBA Executive Committee presented a four-point plan to address the faculty's goals for enhancing the academic environment within the MBA program.  We are writing to communicate the resolutions adopted by the faculty, which we believe are a strong step in our continuing efforts to enhance the overall experience of our students.

The plan discussed at yesterday's meeting has evolved from a long and thoughtful process undertaken by the MBA Executive Committee over the past year and a half, an exercise that highlighted the shared commitment of Wharton students, faculty and alumni to academic excellence in the MBA program.  We wish to acknowledge our debt of gratitude to the MBA Executive Committee, the Wharton Graduate Association leadership, and the other faculty, students and members of Wharton's advisory boards for their contributions to this effort.

The faculty have, after careful investigation and discussion, and extensive consultation with students, elected to take a strong leadership position in strengthening academics as the focal point of the Wharton MBA degree.  The faculty seek through these changes and recommendations to foster the environment within the program that best promotes the centrality of academics and the learning experience for our students.  

The four elements of MBA Executive Committee's resolutions include:

1.    enhancing the environment for teaching and learning in the MBA classroom;

2.    alleviating some of the time demands of recruiting by working with recruiters to eliminate repetitive and ineffective steps in the recruiting process;  

3.    changing the grading system, beginning with next year's incoming first-year students, to more accurately reflect the range of performance levels;

4.    and upholding the rights of students and recruiters to utilize grades as a tool to evaluate job candidates.

The latter two points regarding the change in the grading system and grade disclosure are intended to give students the opportunity to signal meaningful measures of the students' competency in subject areas important to recruiters' interests.  It is hoped that these steps will complement our other efforts to ease the increasing demands recruiters are currently placing on students to demonstrate that information by other means.

We want to also point out some facts that may not be fully understood regarding the current practice of grade non-disclosure which place this practice in conflict with critical institutional values.  First, the Wharton School administration and that of the University of Pennsylvania are forbidden by U.S. federal law to disclose a student's academic transcript to anyone without the student's permission.  Likewise, the School and the University have no authority to force students to disclose their information.  However, under the University's Open Expression Guidelines, no one, including the administration or the Wharton Graduate Association, can limit students' right to freely express or disclose their academic performance information to whomever that they chooses.  Also, no one can preclude a recruiter from asking for academic performance indicators, including grades in individual courses, at any time during the recruiting process.  Students may decline to submit such information, because they cannot be forced to disclose the information.

Yesterday's faculty discussion reflects our institutional commitment to educational excellence and to our academic mission.  Maximizing all aspects of the students' learning experience is an ongoing process, and we will continue to work together as a community toward that end.

We are attaching , below  the approved resolutions that were enacted at yesterday's faculty meeting for your review.  We hope you will consider the four-point plan in its entirety and agree that it is a balanced effort to build value in the Wharton MBA degree for the long term.

Patrick T. Harker

Dean

Anjani Jain

Vice Dean, Graduate Division

Enhancing the Academic Environment

A Four-Point Plan

    The 2005-2006 MBA Executive MBA Executive Committee recommended the following comprehensive four-point plan to enhance the academic environment at Wharton to the faculty on February 14, 2006.   The Wharton faculty adopted the recommendations .  

I. Shaping a Culture of Teaching and Learning          

The MBA Executive Committee recommended that the administration work with faculty and students to shape a culture of excellence in teaching and learning.  In particular, the MBA Executive Committee recommended consideration of the following initial steps to promote continual improvement.

?/SPAN>        Administrative annunciation of Concert Rules as the expected norms for classroom etiquette.  

?/SPAN>        In courses where attendance is required, encourage faculty to articulate strict attendance requirements with explicit penalties for violations, such as an automatic drop.   Where needed, provide support to facilitate attendance taking.  

?/SPAN>        Monitor and minimize extracurricular conflicts with classes

?/SPAN>        Encourage faculty to explicitly reward class preparation.  For example, disseminate best practice strategies for cold calling, quizzes, written participation and other methods across faculty.

?/SPAN>        Develop explicit initiatives to protect and encourage a culture of real student cooperation.   For example, reward student-to-student mentoring within classes.

?/SPAN>        Develop methods to quickly identify and respond to concerns regarding teaching problems.  For example, set up formal channels to monitor and respond to student concerns about teaching as they occur.

Recognizing that shaping culture is a long term evolutionary goal, the MBA Executive Committee recommended the creation of an oversight subcommittee of administrators, faculty and students to actively monitor progress towards this goal.

II. Reforming the MBA Recruiting Process

The MBA Executive Committee recommended that the administration undertake a comprehensive reform of the recruiting process to improve efficiency.   The goal should be to minimize time demands and stress on students, but without adversely affecting student career opportunities or employer experience of the recruiting environment.  Discussions with both students and employers indicate such reform is both feasible and desirable.  In getting started, the following initiatives should be pursued.

?/SPAN>       Create a clear policy for employers that forbids recruiting conflicts with classes; help students reschedule recruiting commitments to avoid conflict with the academic calendar.

?/SPAN>        Increase the efficiency of 1st year recruiting activity by working with student clubs and employers to deliver events that focus primarily on informing students about industries, functions, and companies during Q1, while delaying purely evaluative employer activities to as late as possible in the first year.

?/SPAN>        Promote an open channel for interview lists for on-campus recruiting by introducing a bid/auction system.

?/SPAN>        Explore initiatives such as career-fairs and a DIP period for 2nd years to achieve efficiency in the recruiting process and mitigate conflicts with academic commitments.

?/SPAN>        Work actively with student groups and employers to build consensus with respect to changes.

The MBA Executive Committee recommended , and the faculty voted to adopt , the following statement of the Wharton Grade Disclosure Policy:

Wharton students are free to disclose any aspect of their own academic transcripts to prospective employers or any other interested parties, and are encouraged to do so.   Such disclosure is a legal right and it is Wharton policy to protect this right.   Prospective employers are free to request from students any aspect of their academic transcripts.

IV. New Wharton MBA Grading System

The MBA Executive Committee recommended , and the faculty voted to adopt , the following changes to the MBA Grading System:

1.            Letter Grades and Point Values:  Adopt the traditional grading system with letter grades A/B/C/D/F with + and ?distinctions.  The letter grades will carry the usual point values A=4, B=3, C=2, D=1, F=0.  The +'s and ?s will trisect the interval between full letter grades; i.e., a + grade will be 0.33 above the full grade value and a ?grade 0.33 below.  A+'s will be allowed but will still carry a 4.0 point value, a University of Pennsylvania policy.

2.            Upper Limit on CMGPA:  CMGPA (Class MBA Grade Point Average) will here refer to the average point value of the grades assigned to the MBA students in a class.  For MBA classes with an MBA enrollment of 20 or more at the conclusion of the course, the CMGPA may not exceed 3.33.    The following conditions will apply:

a.     Multiple sections of a course:  When faculty teach multiple sections of a course in a semester, they may choose to aggregate the students across multiple sections for assigning grades and computing the CMGPA.

b.    Small enrollment courses:  When the number of MBA students enrolled in a course is fewer than 20, the CMGPA Upper Limit is linearly modified as follows:

CMGPA Upper Limit = 3.33 + 0.04(20 ?E)⁺,

            where E is the MBA enrollment of the course at its conclusion.  In words, the upper limit CMGPA is raised by 0.04 for every enrollment count below 20.  This upper limit modification applies to all MBA courses including electives and ASPs.

c.         Courses with a mixed population (MBA and non-MBA) of students:  A number of MBA courses have non-MBA enrollments.   The non-MBA students in these courses are graded on the grading basis of their home schools and the CMGPA Upper Limit is computed only with respect to the MBA population of these courses according to the criteria above.  Faculty teaching courses with mixed populations will receive separate grade sheets for non-MBA students.

d.        Enforcement : Course grade submissions will not be accepted if the CMGPA Upper Limit is exceeded.  Any exemptions for special circumstances must be approved by the Vice Dean of the Graduate Division.

3.            Pass-Fail Option: Each student may take up to 1 elective credit unit PASS-FAIL each semester (with the instructor's permission).  ASS-FAIL grades will be excluded from all CMGPA and individual GPA calculations.  This Pass-Fail option does not supersede departmental conditions for majors.

4.            Grandfathering the Class of 2007:  The new grading system will apply exclusively to the students in the class of 2008 and beyond.  Students in the class of 2007 will continue to be graded on the current scale in all of their classes.   All aspects of the CMGPA Upper Limit described above will apply only to those students in the class of 2008 and beyond who are enrolled in each class.

5.            Minimum Academic Standards and Academic Honors:  For the classes of 2006 and 2007, the current criteria with respect to academic probation and dismissal will remain extant.  For the class of 2008 and beyond, a grade of F will be equivalent to an NC and the NC-based probation and dismissal criteria will remain in place.  Faculty will continue to report to the MBA Office the bottom 10% list of students in their classes.  These implicit "QC" designations, as well as F (= NC) grades, will continue to be the basis of dismissal as per the current rules.  After a year or two of experience with the new grading system, the MBA Executive MBA Executive Committee will consider recasting probation and dismissal criteria in terms of GPA thresholds.  Any proposed changes will then go through the usual faculty approval process.  There is no change to the computation of academic honors.