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At the Academic Integrity Conference at Baruch College on Friday, March 9, I attended a session called “Student Top Ten.” The goal of this session was to come up with a “top ten” of ways that students can “move the academic culture on their campus towards a culture that values integrity.” (This wording was taken from the conference program). The session’s participants included administrators from the CUNY system, a librarian, faculty, undergraduates, and graduate students from both Baruch and the Graduate Center.

Our attempts to come up with a “Student Top Ten” seemed to center on grading and what faculty could do to ensure that students weren’t being graded unfairly. There was also much talk about what faculty could do to help students discuss their grades with students more openly.

To dismiss any talk of grading while thinking of academic integrity, I asked why students are not valuing learning for learning’s sake, but the discussion circled back to grading. Perhaps it was my idyllic undergraduate years, spent amid the Blue Ridge mountains and lilac and dogwood trees, studying philosophy and liberal arts, that fostered a false sense of how others view learning. I always thought of learning as discovery, risk-taking, and creative thinking, but it seems as if some think of it as gaining an unfair advantage or finding ways to ensure an “A” in the class.

When I taught composition, I would always remind my students that grades were never assigned, but rather they were earned. I would be happy to talk to them about their strengths and weaknesses, but I would never discuss grades.

Grading, it seems, isn’t going to be done away with, at least not in the CUNY system. Given this, what might be some items to include in a Student Top Ten? How can we talk about academic integrity without circling back to grading?