A recent AP story reports that a grade of “B” is closer to an average grade than that of “C.” The cumulative grade-point average for Iowa’s three universities is 2.81, very close to a “B.”

Are today’s students smarter than yesterday’s, or are institutions inflating grades?

One of the goals of a university is to attract as many students as possible.

As a prospective student, you look for the schools that have the best programs, and the best programs are usually those turning out students with the highest grade-point averages.

Education has now become an achievement of grades rather than intelligence. Grade inflation, meant to draw in students, regurgitates nothing more than graduates with a few memorized textbook chapters. There is no initiative in a system like this.

Though most will downplay or deny it, grade inflation happens here at Iowa State as well. However, it is not the product of an underhanded administration. Iowa State has to compete with other universities in producing the best students. But, when the other universities inflate their grades, ISU feels the pressure to do the same.

Universities do it simply to show that their own students are up to par with students elsewhere.

Nevertheless, this action hurts not only college students but also those on the high school, middle school and even elementary school levels.

These schools either lower their standards or inflate grades so that their students may advance to the next level.

The final result is a society that is book-smart, but not necessarily intelligent.

Students need the power to become initiators of the future, not imitators of the past.