Dean's Corner: The Deans Respond to Class Vote on Norms and Grade Disclosure
Issue date: 10/15/01 Section: Dean's Corner
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The hot topic over the last couple of weeks has been the Class of 2002's vote on norms relating to grade disclosure. No doubt you have followed the debate and outcomes. Could you share with us your reactions to the vote? Specifically, what signal do you, and the faculty, feel that the vote has sent?
There are a number of levels at which it is possible to react to this vote, and we think our greatest challenge in answering this question is trying to disentangle the levels. In this response, we’ll give our reaction about the right of students to go off on their own and set norms about grade disclosure. At a more specific level, we’ll give our reaction to the content of the particular norms. Finally, at the level of sub-text, we’ll give our reaction to the belief that underlies the norm: that one of the distinctive aspects of the Stanford GSB is its high level of cooperation and that one of the students’ greatest concerns is that grade disclosure will somehow undercut that level of cooperation.
First, at the broad level, we – and we believe the faculty – certainly respect the right of students to meet independently to talk about class norms and consider what norms will be most conducive to learning. As those of us in the Dean’s Office have mentioned a number of times, when it comes to things like behavior in interviews, preparing for class, and – in this case -- grade disclosure to recruiters, the expectations of fellows students are going to be a stronger motivator for students than any implicit or explicit threats from the Dean’s Office. Indeed, our hope is that there might even be more of these forums in which students would give a similar level of attention to what it means to show respect for recruiters, how students should behave in contexts where they are clearly Stanford representatives (e.g., study trips), and so on. So, the bottom line is that we think that this is great, and we appreciate the tremendous job that Dan and Steve did in facilitating the discussions.
There are a number of levels at which it is possible to react to this vote, and we think our greatest challenge in answering this question is trying to disentangle the levels. In this response, we’ll give our reaction about the right of students to go off on their own and set norms about grade disclosure. At a more specific level, we’ll give our reaction to the content of the particular norms. Finally, at the level of sub-text, we’ll give our reaction to the belief that underlies the norm: that one of the distinctive aspects of the Stanford GSB is its high level of cooperation and that one of the students’ greatest concerns is that grade disclosure will somehow undercut that level of cooperation.
First, at the broad level, we – and we believe the faculty – certainly respect the right of students to meet independently to talk about class norms and consider what norms will be most conducive to learning. As those of us in the Dean’s Office have mentioned a number of times, when it comes to things like behavior in interviews, preparing for class, and – in this case -- grade disclosure to recruiters, the expectations of fellows students are going to be a stronger motivator for students than any implicit or explicit threats from the Dean’s Office. Indeed, our hope is that there might even be more of these forums in which students would give a similar level of attention to what it means to show respect for recruiters, how students should behave in contexts where they are clearly Stanford representatives (e.g., study trips), and so on. So, the bottom line is that we think that this is great, and we appreciate the tremendous job that Dan and Steve did in facilitating the discussions.