Students eagerly logging on to check their fall semester grades may be disappointed if a historic downward trend in grade point averages revealed last week has continued into this academic year.

According to data Dean of Undergraduate Education Benedict H. Gross ’71 sent to the Faculty last week, grades fell during the 2001-2002 academic year, the second year of decline after sixteen years of increases.

Gross reported that last year’s mean grade was 12.58, down from 12.65 the year before. Both numbers correlate to just above a B-plus on Harvard’s 15 point scale.

The decline followed a year of intense scrutiny of Harvard’s grading trends in both the Faculty and the national media.

Gross attributed the dip in overall average to a reduction in the number of A-range grades given.

Last year 46.4 percent of all grades given were A’s. This percentage peaked in the 2000-2001 academic year at 48.4 percent.

While the numbers have only declined a few decimal points, Faculty members say the change is meaningful.

“In some ways it seems small, but since grades are compressed into such a small range, it may be significant,” said Gurney Professor of English Literature James Engell.

Professors said they are not surprised by the decline given the intense discussion over grade inflation that dominated the Faculty’s agenda last year.

These debates culminated last spring with the decision to switch to a 4.0 scale and to cap the number of students who receive honors at sixty percent.

These changes have yet to be implemented—the new grade scale will be adopted next fall and the new honors policy will first apply to the Class of 2005.

But professors said last year’s discussions have already led faculty members to tighten their grading practices.

“It is not legislation that moves the Faculty...it is the atmosphere raised by the issue,” said Roderick L. MacFarquhar, chair of the government department.

Gross said that he sent out the letter to continue conversations about grades begun under his predecessor Susan G. Pedersen ’81-’82.

And for the first time this semester, the registrar asked professors to list the total number of each grade given in addition to submitting individual grades for their students.