We recently reported that Harvard University is removing the “difficulty scores” from its course evaluation guide.

Student evaluations regarding this decision are none too positive.

Responding to what Undergraduate Council President Gus A. Mayopoulos ’15 described as possibly “the dumbest decision” he has seen administrators make this year, undergraduates expressed outrage Friday about a recent announcement from Dean of Undergraduate Education Jay M. Harris that the Q Guide will no longer display course difficulty ratings.

The change, approved in a Faculty Council meeting in late September, was relayed to students in an email sent by Harris Tuesday night. Days later, students have responded on a wide scale by voicing their concerns over social media and even replying to Harris’ email.

In a mass email sent to undergraduates on Friday, UC leaders said they are working to overturn the decision and encouraged students who feel that this decision was “ unfair” or “poorly thought-out” to contact Harris.

Mayopoulos, for his part, said that while he understands the rationale faculty may have had in making this decision, it was “wrong.”

In his email, Harris wrote that the withholding of the difficulty score, along with other changes to the Q Guide, are intended by the faculty to make the course and instructor evaluation tool “a more accurate, sophisticated, and helpful mechanism for learning about and choosing courses.”

Mayopoulos, however, called change an unprecedented step to withhold valuable information from students.

“This is a proactive step by the Faculty Council to try to limit the amount of information that students have when making course decisions, and I’ve just never seen anything like it,” Mayopolous said.

Students voiced two main concerns about the way in which faculty legislated the change: that they had forgone student feedback and did not communicate the change to students until eight months after the decision had been made.

“[The decision] shows a real lack of concern for student need and student opinion—to go completely behind our backs like this, ” Oreoluwa O. Babarinsa ’15 said.

…In a mass email sent to undergraduates on Friday, UC leaders said they are working to overturn the decision and encouraged students who feel that this decision was “ unfair” or “poorly thought-out” to contact Harris.

Mayopoulos, for his part, said that while he understands the rationale faculty may have had in making this decision, it was “wrong.”