"Some faculty brought up the spectre of student evaluations, which has been cited as a prime mover behind grade inflation...."

"Online course listings enable faculty, students, and administrators to see which classes fill up the fastest and, by implication, which professors are perceived as benevolent and easygoing. A professor of sociology at a large public university told me that these (surprisingly public) pressures on faculty are symptomatic of a transactional model of higher education. 'Broadly speaking, there are students and administrators who treat higher education as a service industry: students are the customers, faculty are the service providers, admin are the managers,' he said.... Any faculty member who is tolerant of extensions and makeup tests—who, in other words, gives the customer what she asks for—will earn more rave reviews than a less indulgent colleague...."

From "Can Colleges Do Without Deadlines? Since covid, many professors have become more flexible about due dates. But some teachers believe that the way to address student anxiety is more deadlines, not fewer" by Jessica Winter (in The New Yorker).