Grade Inflation at UWO

JRS posted some numbers for us in a comment to the gentleman's C thread.
I am posting them up front:

Average GPA for the University in Spring of 2005: 2.95
Average GPA for COLS: 2.78
Lowest department average: Anthropology: 2.28
Highest department average: Art: 3.44

College of Nursing and the COEHS both have averages well over 3.

UWO average GPA was 2.85 in 1990, 2.93 in 1994 and dropped to 2.91 in 1999. We are roughly following the national trends, though with a bit of variation from year to year. Here is a report from 1999 from the Office of Institutional Research, with lots of specifics from departments and colleges.

I found a few national statistics to compare to:

National average for public universities in 2002: 2.97
Average for UW-Madison in 1998: 3.11

This data came from Gradeinflation.com.

Here is a paper about grade inflation at Madison up to 1998, in which the author tests the hypothesis that improving student quality caused the higher grades. He found no strong link. It also has some nifty charts.