The most drastic measure proposed to fight grade inflation is transcript amplification, which includes placing on the transcript the mean grade and the number of enrolled students for each course.

Proponents say it will provide more information to transcript readers.

It's "a question of truth in advertising or full disclosure. It's a question of whether the reader of the transcript has understanding of the meaning of the letter grade," says Dean of the Faculty Jeremy R. Knowles.

But some faculty and students say they are concerned by the possibility of amplification, saying the hoped-for effects are unclear.

On the one hand, it would protect students who receive bad grades in tough classes, Buell says.

The proposal would also "very quickly make the average grade in a class public," says Gary J. Feldman, Baird professor of science and the chair of the Physics Department.

Proponents of transcript amplification believe that making average grades public would discourage teachers from indiscriminately handing out A's and thereby cause some grade deflation.

But some argue that amplification would increase pressure on students.

"It would create a sense of competitiveness in a class which is the exact opposite of what we are trying for," Feldman says. "We trying for cooperative learning."

In addition to making average grades public, the CUE has also suggested filling in the gaps in the College's grading scale.

One option is to eliminate the 15-point scale and replace it with a linear scale such the 4.0 system.

Another option is to create a new grade for the 13 slot--an A-/B+.

Feldman says neither of these proposals are seen as solutions to grade inflation, although creating a new grade might combat grade compression--which is when professors have fewer grading options to distinguish between students at the top of the spectrum.

Buell describes much of the debate between these two proposals as a "cultural issue." "Quantitative fields are worried about a illogical scale while the humanities want to be more descriptive," Buell told the CUE committee last week.

"It gives you a finer discriminate," Feldman explains.