When everyone makes an A plus in jogging class, we don't think much of it. On the other hand, if everyone were making such extraordinarily high scores in Calculus, we would wonder when the standards became so lax.

Grade inflation is an increasing problem on campuses around the nation, from Chapel Hill, N.C. to right here in Tuscaloosa.

Two UA professors - David Beito, an associate political science professor, and Charles Nuckolls, an anthropology professor - are suggesting that grade inflation has been drastically on the rise for the past 30 years. The percentage of A's handed out at the University in 2001 was 30.5 percent, up from 23 percent in 1988.