Stop Meeting Students Where They Are
North Carolina colleges should correct a bad academic habit.
Over the past several years, a common refrain in education has been that educators need to “meet students where they are.” Equally common is the promise to do just that—and we’re hearing it more and more in North Carolina.
The idea of “meeting students where they are” is most commonly invoked in non-academic contexts. For example:
- DeVetta Holman Nash, assistant director of student wellness services and coordinator of student academic success at UNC, proclaims, “I meet students where they are individually.”
- UNC Charlotte touts a new “all-pathways [‘collegiate recovery’] program model to meet students where they are.”
- After partnering with Amazon’s Career Choice Program in 2022, UNCG chancellor Franklin Gilliam, Jr., declared, “With this exciting partnership, we are transforming the way we provide coursework to meet students where they are.”
By Abigail S. Gerstein and Amann S. Mahajan, Crimson Staff Writers The Harvard Crimson January 27, 2026 Harvard faculty awarded significantly fewer A grades in the fall, cutting the share of top marks by nearly seven percentage points after the College urged instructors to combat grade inflation, according to a Monday afternoon email obtained by The Crimson. The email, which was addressed to Faculty of Arts and Sciences instructors and sent by Dean of Undergraduate Education Amanda Claybaugh, reported that the share of flat As fell from 60.2 percent in the 2024-2025 academic year to 53.4 percent in the fall. The decline follows a 25-page report Claybaugh released in October 2025 arguing that grade inflation had rendered the College’s grading system unable to “perform the key functions of grading” and encouraging stricter academic measures, including standardized grading across sections and in-person final exams. Continue Reading
Student evaluations subject professors to perverse incentives.
Furman Free Speech Alliance has the Right Idea.