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Harvard Faculty Votes to Make It Harder for Undergrads to Earn A’s
Harvard’s Faculty of Arts and Sciences announced Wednesday that it would limit the number of A grades awarded to undergraduates, adopting one of the most ambitious efforts by a major university to curb grade inflation. The decision was made by faculty vote earlier this month. ... The move comes after top grades became so common that some Harvard faculty argued they no longer reliably distinguished exceptional work. More than 60% of all grades awarded to undergraduates in recent years were in the A range, according to university data cited by faculty members who supported the measure.
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1.7 Million Unspoken Words
Have you noticed? Compared to prior decades, we’re spending more time alone. American Time Use Surveys from 2003 to 2024 found that 15- to 25-year-olds’ in-person socializing plummeted—from 60 to 36 minutes daily, with parallel, but lesser, declines among older folks. We’re working more from home. We’re less often dining out with others and more often eating take-out food. We’re shopping more online. We’re more often living alone—with U.S. single-person households having doubled since 1960. We’re also spending much more time online. For some people, online time includes chatbot friends, which are available 24/7 to offer comfort, support, and encouragement.
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Do You Believe in Altruism?
Teaching: Researchers are beginning to understand altruism in new ways. This student activity highlights the real-world implications.
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Stressing Over Something? These 3 Questions Can Help
... One method I use to corral my spiraling thoughts was developed by Martin Seligman, the director of the Penn Positive Psychology Center and a leading authority on happiness. He studies how people build resilience and has found that how we describe our hardships to ourselves can influence how we view them. In his decades of research, Dr. Seligman has developed a three-part framework people can use to interpret life’s challenges: permanence, pervasiveness and agency. I find it helpful to pose a question about each one when I’m feeling out of control.
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APS issues statement on the Proposed Elimination of the NSF Directorate for Social, Behavioral, and Economic Sciences
APS issued a statement urging Congress and the White House to work together to ensure the sustained continuity of research, education, and training.
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APS Statement on Disruptions to NSF Leadership
In April, the Administration dismissed all 22 seated National Science Board members—the independent, Congressionally mandated oversight body—leaving the National Science Foundation without its Board and a confirmed Director. APS sent a letter urging the Senate
