SOMETIMES, DISPASSIONATELY, YOU HAVE TO WEED.  At the NAS Blog, Jason Fertig offers the Trenchant Observation of the Day.  It might warrant the status of Prime Directive for New Academicians.

So do good professors give F’s?  Yes, professors who clearly define what it means to pass courses both to themselves and their students fail students who do not meet those standards.

Why? Because.

If “C means degree,” then “degree means competency.”  For example, if students are to graduate with better writing skills, they cannot pass any graded written assignment while writing poorly.  This has to be true in both colleges of business and liberal arts colleges.  Combating grade inflation and increasing standards cannot only take place in individual classes; it must be a team effort coordinated among all professors across the board. Otherwise students can avoid rigorous courses and graduate without them.

He extends the argument in a commentary at the Chronicle of Higher Education.

In my recent interview with Andy Nash on Inside Academia, I stated that we owe our colleagues the courtesy of not passing students who fail to demonstrate the basic competencies needed for 300- and 400-level courses.  It may be politically incorrect to suggest that some students are not cut out for college; nevertheless, the question of whether weaker students should be weeded out needs to be asked, because no one wins in the end when standards are dumbed down.

So mote it be.