RECESSIONAL

In these, the closing days of the assignment of degrees to Seniors with or without distinction, there emerges a conflict between two aspects of the academic progress which should be in harmony, each fulfilling its purpose without a disturbing contact with the other. The work done in courses and the tutorial and individual work done in a student's field of concentration contribute, each in its own measure, toward the education of which the Bachelor's degree is the tangible evidence. But at the last those who give courses become jealous of control over the result. Is it fair to the student, or wholly in keeping with the professed idea of the divisional examination for honors, that he may lose the distinction degree earned in his field because of a failure to meet exactly some prejudice that requires a stated number of B's in courses?

Since the inception of the divisional plan the courses taken in a field of concentration have become a mere means to a mastery of that field. The knowledge gained is tested in the divisional examinations; and in the case of honors candidates, a thesis provides a wider proving ground. When a man has passed his divisional requirements, he is excused from final examinations; his courses, having accomplished their purpose, are discarded. And yet a student may be refused a minor honors degree because in the opinion of the faculty perhaps one of the C's appearing in his record should have been a B. The means, in other words, is permitted to overshadow the end.

Great emphasis has been put on the latitude which the divisional plan allows a man; a mediocre student may develop in four years to the point where he may prove, at the end, that he is worthy of a degree with honors. In order that the award of degrees may be faithful to this theory, which is a sound one, it seems unjust that such a man should miss the prize he has earned because of a slip in perhaps, his sophomore year, when he was not yet of honors calibre. As long as, a senior's course record is satisfactory, it should not prove a belated handicap when the race is won and the medals are waiting.