In Short

As the faculty prepared for an October vote on changing the University’s grading policy, a report showed that GRADES HAVE CLIMBED over the last three years. A-range grades accounted for 43 percent of grades in undergraduate classes in 2011–2014, up from 40.1 percent in 2008–2011. Over the last three years, departments in the natural sciences and social sciences were the toughest graders: A’s were 38 and 39.2 percent, respectively, of their total grades.

Princeton is expanding its ONLINE TECHNOLOGY initiative to a second Web platform, NovoEd, that offers MOOCs (massive open online courses). History professor Jeremy Adelman is using NovoEd to allow Princeton students taking his fall course, “Global History Lab,” to work on lab assignments with students around the world. Part two of the NovoEd course begins Oct. 26. Princeton faculty also offer courses on the Coursera platform.

Denise Applewhite/Office of Communications

In Memoriam

EDWARD NELSON, professor emeritus of mathematics, died Sept. 10 in Princeton at age 82. After receiving his Ph.D. from the University of Chicago, Nelson spent three years as a fellow at the Institute for Advanced Study. He served on the Princeton faculty from 1959 to 2013.Nelson made fundamental contributions to a variety of fields of mathematics, including probability, logic, mathematical physics, and foundations.