December 9, 2005
To the Harvard Business School Community:
I have returned to HBS today to meet with some alumni and also talk about my time at HBS for a video that is being prepared for the School’s 100th anniversary in 2008. This is a day for me of looking back, so it’s particularly appropriate for me to give you some perspective on the important matter of revising our grade disclosure policy – an issue that is being examined vigorously on campus now by students and faculty alike, but that actually first began to be a topic of discussion under my leadership more than a year ago.
The academic quality of this School is crucial to all of us. As I have often said, a Harvard MBA degree has be synonymous with excellence. To keep that bar at the highest level requires constant vigilance and a commitment to continuous improvement in areas such as curriculum, teaching materials, faculty training, technology, and student preparation and participation in the classroom. While I was Dean, meetings of both the faculty and the student academic council were devoted to these topics. Along with many other faculty members, I strongly believed that the time had come for us to return to a policy of grade disclosure – a policy that had, in fact, been in force for most of the School’s history – as part of our effort to make the HBS classroom experience second to none.
I continue to feel this way and thus want to express to you my complete support for the efforts of Dean Light and Senior Associate Dean Ruback in this regard since I stepped down last spring. They are carrying the torch that I lit.
Sincerely,
Kim B. Clark
