When was the last time you heard someone expelled over a grade dispute between a B and an A?

That’s exactly what happened at University of Michigan-Flint, where emails about a Spanish test escalated into accusations of discrimination, as well as a $40 million lawsuit.

Stephen Tripodi, 40, a former student at the University, claims that he was forced to drop out with $20,000 in student debt due to gender and appearance discrimination.

“I’m a good guy and I was trying to go back to school,” he said, “I have no criminal record. I have no gun. This happened to me because I was tall white male and I looked scary to them. I did nothing wrong.”

According to the school’s Regents communications, however, Tripodi’s dismissal was based on fellow students’ allegations that he “threatened the safety of a University professor” rather than his appearance.

While privacy laws restrict the release of specific information about the on-going case, grading policies have become increasing controversial because college education is more of a requisite for full-time employment than ever before.

Some employers might differentiate GPAs based on medians of different majors and colleges, but most don’t. For competitive industries, it’s not uncommon for recruiters to have GPA cut-offs at 3.3 or 3.5 – averages that took considerable more work to achieve, just a couple of decades ago.

The American Academy of Arts and Sciences published a study in 2002 that highlighted the prevalent trend of grade inflation, especially at Ivy League institutions.

Since then, Princeton has been the first to react by imposing an active grade-deflating policy of 35% distribution for A’s – a percentage considerably lower than the 47% highs in 2004.

Student responses to the change have been overwhelmingly negative. Common concerns include feelings of disadvantage compared to other Ivies and avoidance of classes with lower medians.

Class selection based on median grades is certainly a pattern here at Cornell . A’s have rose from 17.5% of total grades in 1965 to 45% in Spring 2004.

In the 2007 studystudy , “Quest for Knowledge and Pursuit of Grades: Information, Course Selection and Grade Inflation,” Cornell professors found that, “grade-driven course selection contributes to grade inflation and compression, depreciating the information content of grades.”

On the other hand, recent studies by Professors Stephen Lippmann, Ronald Bulanda, and Theodore Wagenaar from Miami University argue that student entitlement is the main reason behind these trends. They believe that regardless of transparencies in grading procedures and standards, the, “internalized set of attitudes and orientations,” of certain students will still result in debates over grade assessments.

Concerns over how grades might impact future job or graduate placement could be the main motivator behind Tripodi’s dispute. Whether he observes the characteristics of a self entitled student or not, the increasing demand of employers and graduate schools for candidates with higher GPAs is driving students to pursue grades rather than knowledge.