wharton maintains Grade Non-Disclosure policy

tuzq · 发表于 2006-2-25 23:44:00

SUMMARY:

The WGA (Wharton Graduate Association, basically the student council) has shepherded a student-wide vote that has agreed to maintain the current student-led GND policy in the face of recruiters. This policy will hold for the class of 2008 until another referendum is held next year.

This post is long, but I figured it would be helpful to be comprehensive. This post includes:

1) CONTEXT
2) FEB 15 WHARTON EXECUTIVE COMMITTEE ACTION (SUMMARY)
3) WHARTON GRADUATE ASSOCIATION
4) WHARTON GRADUATE ASSOCIATION GND PROPOSAL
5) CLARIFICATION OF THE VOTING PROCESS - EMAIL SENT FEBRUARY 23 FROM THE WGA
6) FEBRUARY 23 EMAIL FROM THE WGA: REFERRENDUM RESULTS

CONTEXT:

Many top business schools, such as HBS, Stanford, Chicago, and Wharton have had a GND policy in recent years. Various reasons have been cited, but "supporting a co-operative, supportive student environment" has been one of the most prominent.

Media (and recruiter?) pressure in 2005 led Harvard Business School earlier this winter to eliminate their GND policy for the class of 2008 and beyond.

Harvard's decision accelerated the feeling of urgency on the Wharton campus. Wharton administrators, who had already been promoting dialog on the issue for months, and who had nearly all been leaning toward eliminating the GND policy, issued a formal statement on February 15th.

FEB 15 WHARTON EXECUTIVE COMMITTEE ACTION (SUMMARY)

In this memo on "faculty action," Dean Harker introduces newly "approved resolutions" of the Wharton Executive Committee. The entire memo is quoted later in this post, but I cite the GND element here:

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.

The final two sentences of the memo sum up the thinking:

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.

WHARTON GRADUATE ASSOCIATION

At its core, however, the Wharton GND policy is a student-led initiative that was initially voted on by students in 1994. (Note that this was not the case at HBS.) Many students felt offended at the faculty's attempt to eliminate a policy they were not "entitled" to address.

A referrendum was held February 22nd and February 23rd for students to vote on whether to maintain the student-led GND. This referrendum required at least 50% voter turnout and at least 67% approval to maintain the GND policy; otherwise, as a default, the student-led GND would "disappear." The referrendum also claims that it is to be revoted on every year.

Particularly pertinent to the audience of this board is the population affected by these decisions. In all situations (I think), the classes of 2006 and 2007 were grandfathered into the old policy. The Class of 2008 would be the first class affected by this change in policy.

WHARTON GRADUATE ASSOCIATION GND PROPOSAL

Wharton students voted February 22nd and 23rd on the following proposal.

WHARTON MBA STUDENT POLICY ON FIRST AND SECOND YEAR GRADE DISCLOSURE

ADOPTED BY REFERENDUM JANUARY 26, 1994, UPDATED FEBRUARY 20, 2006

This policy draws its strength and significance from the collective will of Wharton抯 student community. By adhering to it, students uphold and reinforce certain aspects of the Wharton culture for which the institution is renowned. Although compliance is not mandatory, we ask that all students abide by the majority will of their peers and in the spirit of the Wharton experience.

The Wharton MBA student body believes that academic grades must be separate from the recruiting process. As such,

Students, both First and Second years, are to refrain from discussing GPAs or transcripts with recruiters.

i. We ask students to recognize the collective will of the Wharton student body and to deny any employer requests for transcript records until a full-time position has been offered.

Recruiters are requested to refrain from asking students about GPAs or transcripts.

i. We ask that recruiters also recognize the collective will of Wharton抯 student body and abstain from requesting transcripts or class rank from students.

ii. If a prospective employer requests a transcript, students should remind the employer of the WGA抯 non-disclosure policy.

All academic honors, such as nomination to the Director抯 List, First Year Honors or TA experiences, may be disclosed to recruiters.

The policy outlined above was adopted to address the fallibility of grades as a metric in evaluating student performance. For example,

The Wharton curriculum relies heavily on experiential learning to develop students?leadership and interpersonal skills. Opportunities to demonstrate or improve these skills often fall outside the purview of academics and are therefore not fully captured in a student抯 GPA.

An important vehicle for experiential learning is group work on academic projects. Teams, rather than individuals, are held accountable for academic performance. Grades on team projects, which are significant contributors to individual course grades, do not directly reflect the strengths and weaknesses of individual team members.

Grades can be imperfect predictors of job performance; they measure performance in a setting that is often dissimilar to most work environments.

Overemphasis on grades by recruiters may impel students to avoid courses that are challenging and/or removed from previous experience, thereby limiting their education to ensure better grades.

This policy does not prohibit students or recruiters from broaching the subject of academics. It encourages students and recruiters to discuss other individual accomplishments that effectively communicate the full range of their abilities.

This is a student-led, voluntary initiative. As such, students must re-affirm their commitment to this policy on an annual basis. Specifically,

Beginning in 2007, there will be a school-wide referendum between January 10 and 20.

The referendum will re-affirm this policy only if:

i. At least one-half (50%) of the student body (including both First and Second years) participates.

ii. At least two-thirds (66.7%) of participants vote to maintain grade non-disclosure.

If either element fails to achieve the requisite participation figures, another vote must be held within three (3) months. If at that time the referendum again fails, this grade non-disclosure policy will be struck from the bylaws and rendered obsolete.

Only the WGA Executive Council can propose changes to this policy. Such changes will be implemented upon an affirmative vote in a special school-wide referendum (as described above). Should the changes be approved by the student body, the vote to re-affirm the grade non-disclosure policy will take place as scheduled with the newly adopted changes.

CLARIFICATION OF THE VOTING PROCESS - EMAIL SENT FEBRUARY 23 FROM THE WGA

Dear Classmates,

Over the last two days we have heard a few students express concerns with the new student GND policy. To wit: the new policy requires an annual vote to re-affirm student sentiment and a supermajority to pass.

The following points address these concerns.

Annual Voting:

1. The policy calls for students to act collectively. Since the collective changes every year, the new students should have the right to assert their commitment to the policy.

2. The current misinformation stemmed from the poorly communicated GND policy. We designed the annual vote to keep everyone well informed of the true policy and to ensure the integrity and validity of the process.

3. As stated in the document, the policy cannot fail unless the students vote it down not once, but twice. This clause ensures the policy will accurately reflect the will of Wharton抯 student body.

Supermajority:

1. A supermajority is necessary for credibility. We can only communicate such a message to recruiters/stakeholder/etc. with a clear mandate from the vast majority of students.

2. Without the tacit support of Career Services, the primary strength of our GND policy will be the collective will of the students. Only a supermajority can demonstrate such unity.

3. A supermajority approval strengthens student adherence: it establishes the will of the current student body, thus galvanizing student support.

We fully expect the current vote on the new GND policy to reflect students?views. As the polls closed today at 5pm, we will disseminate the results as soon as they are certified.

Best Regards,

Serhan Secmen and the WGA

FEBRUARY 23 EMAIL FROM THE WGA: REFERRENDUM RESULTS

Dear Classmates,

As we have often communicated, this most-recent vote on grade non-disclosure would accurately reflect current student sentiment on the issue. Indeed, the results demonstrate that students are even more decidedly in favor of GND today than they were when the policy was first adopted in 1994.

outanddown · 发表于 2006-2-26 01:43:00

Really compelling news.

marinezheng · 发表于 2006-2-26 12:51:00

it seems there would be a greater competition in Wharton in the future

wharton maintains Grade Non-Disclosure policy

wharton maintains Grade Non-Disclosure policy

所属分类: 商学院申请

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