Thank God for long-winded faculty meetings.

The faculty senate of the University’s largest school — Franklin College — delayed a discussion Thursday of placing a quota on the number of A’s and B’s professors can award, after members were unable to agree on what role their departments should play in student grade appeals.

And that’s good news — because now I get to tell you why grade quotas are a bad idea before some of Franklin’s senators become enamored with the idea of falsely inflating the difficulty of their classes.

If faculty leaders have a desire to respond to President Adams’ recent call for renewed vigor in the classroom, they need to find a method better than quotas to combat grade inflation.

To be fair, this issue is not new to Franklin — it was raised by the senate last spring as well, before Adams began talking about a curriculum overhaul.

You see, it seems we students have become so smart that we’re ruining the grading curve.

It’s no secret there are many classes where A’s are too freely handed out — I’ve taken them and so have you.

The average GPA rose from 2.82 to 3.15 between 1992 and 2003, according to the University’s Office of Institutional Research.

You can credit HOPE for raising the intelligence of the student body — but also credit it for guilt tripping some professors into raising grades to save students’ eligibility for the scholarship.

Lets face it: spotting ‘A’ professors in The Key is about as difficult as spotting Don Leebern’s money at work for the gymnastics team.

But to suggest quotas will cure the ills caused by grade inflation is pure idiocy.

All it means is more work for students — who potentially will not earn the recognition they deserve — and less work for instructors.

And most disappointing: a policy like this does nothing to raise the intellectual bar at this institution.

Large classes will remain unchallenging, even as more students receive mediocre grades for above-average work.

What a quota system really does is allow professors to give out fewer A’s and B’s, then point to the numbers and suggest their class has become more difficult.

Meanwhile, the quality of a student’s educational experience has improved in no way whatsoever.

When Adams asked last week, “What must we do now to move this university to the next level?” I don’t think grade quotas was the answer he had in mind.

Professors must be willing to invest more time in their classes if they genuinely are concerned about the diminishing value of their grades.

If Franklin senators decide to discuss grade inflation solutions at their next meeting, they should keep in mind that courses can be made more challenging without limiting students’ successes.

– Matt Barnwell is a senior majoring in Newspapers and Political Science and is the Opinions Editor for The Red & Black.