Dean of the College Harry R. Lewis ’68 framed the change as a logical extension of last year’s Faculty legislation to cap the percentage of students who graduate from the College with honors.

“Currently 19 percent of upperclassmen receive the John Harvard Scholarship for having a GPA of A-minus or better the previous year, and another 48 percent receive the Harvard College Scholarship for having less than A-minus but at least a B-plus GPA,” Lewis wrote in a memo to Faculty members in advance of the meeting.

With such a large number of recipients, Lewis said the awards have lost their ability to recognize the College’s best students.

The motion passed unanimously, with the comment coming from Kenan Professor of Government Harvey C. Mansfield ’53, who subtly suggested that grade inflation was at the root of the need to revise the standards.

The last item on the agenda at yesterday’s meeting was a discussion of the role of public service in the undergraduate experience at Harvard.

Professor of Sociology Christopher Winship, chair of the standing committee on public service, led this discussion, which he had initiated at last month’s Faculty meeting.

Winship called for Faculty members to contemplate ways to integrate students’ public service activities with academic experiences.

Though he said his committee is opposed to the idea of offering academic credit solely for public service, Winship said it is trying to encourage the development of courses that would include a field requirement fulfilled through a public service.

Winship noted that Spanish 38, “Spanish in the Community” already requires students to volunteer in a Spanish-speaking community organization and reflect on their experiences, both orally in class and in papers written in Spanish.

—Staff writer Kate L. Rakoczy can be reached at rakoczy@fas.harvard.edu.