To the editor:

Terry Rombeck’s story about grade inflation harks back to my own experience as a KU student during the 1960s. Few students would ever visit their professors during office hours. The thought of calling a professor at home was inconceivable.

Today, we KU faculty members are accessible to our students in ways that our predecessors could not have imagined and probably would not have welcomed.. All of us have e-mail addresses that our students are invited to use. Most of us use online resources such as Web pages or “Blackboard,” which make us available to answer students’ questions virtually around the clock. With the help of KU’s Center for Teaching Excellence, we’ve learned to coach and mentor our students in innovative ways, with practice quizzes, outside readings and online resources such as good examples from prior semesters.

At the end of each semester, we evaluate our courses carefully, seeking ways to improve them. No, we are not giving grades away. But we are constantly working to help our students improve their learning experience at KU. And we still have office hours that our students fortunately do not hesitate to use.

Robert Basow,

KU associate professor,

in journalism