August 14, 2026 - Clancy Searched 'Treat a Sociopath'

Something to think about as the kids get ready to go back to school. Beginning in the fall of 2027, the University of Michigan's College of Literature, Science, and the Arts will assign pass/no credit grades — not letter grades — for the first semester of every incoming student. Grades will still exist. Students will still get instructor feedback, and the marks will still count where they must: scholarships, honors, athletic eligibility. They just won't appear on external transcripts. Michigan says it wants freshmen to settle in; the driver is largely mental health.

Younger me would have scoffed: “We're pampering these kids. The real world grades everything. Toughen up.” But the mental health concerns are real, and I had an epiphany years ago on a college tour with one of our sons, sitting in a basement at Brown while an undergrad explained the open curriculum: no distribution requirements, any class pass/fail, failing grades never on the transcript. I used to say ridiculous. That day I thought about my own path. I loved and benefited from my Lehigh experience, but I graduated a double major in government and journalism, plus a stack of urban studies courses — and very little else. My constant focus was the GPA I needed to get into the law school of my choice. Given the Brown freedom, I'd have explored.

And grades are newer than you think. Yale's Ezra Stiles was sorting students into four Latin buckets in 1785. Letter grades didn't arrive until Mount Holyoke, 1897 — initially with no F. They spread as administrative shorthand for overwhelmed teachers, and we've treated them as objective truth ever since.

Michael Nietzel, Missouri State's president emeritus, told me on radio this week that the experiment is "worth a try." I agree.

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