The Honors Squeeze

Sometime this spring the Faculty may have to decide whether it wants to grant fewer honors degrees to the students it graduates.

The argument for such a move is that with the grade inflation that Dean K. Whitla, director of the Office of Instructional Research and Evaluation, says has been noticeable in the College over the last 20 years, more and more students have been graduating with honors.

The proposal for such a change comes from Francis M. Pipkin, associate dean of the Faculty for the Colleges, and his ad-hoc committee of four Faculty members who have agreed that the Faculty should strengthen requirements for the cum laude degree in General Studies (CLGS) and the summa cum laude undergraduate honors degree.

The CLGS often goes to seniors who have dropped their theses, and Pipkin said that the new guidelines would establish a grade-point average minimum for all students who would attempt to qualify for the honor.

Alan E. Heimert '49, Cabot Professor of American Literature, said this week that the measures regarding the summa degree would clarify the existing standard.

"You don't want the CLGS just to be the prize when a guy can't get honors any other way," Pipkin explained.