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7 Summas Awarded in Ec, None in Gov

Honors Degrees Vary Among Departments

By M. BRETT Gladstone

While the Economics Department has nominated seven seniors for summa degrees, the Government faculty voted to award none this year, a survey of departmental honors revealed yesterday.

A canvassing of six other departments also showed similar disparities in the percentage of concentrators receiving nominations for honors degrees.

Summa Wrestling

Harvey C. Mansfield Jr. '53, chairman of the Government Department, said yesterday that the absence of any summa recommendations in his department this year "is unfortunate, but not unusual. It happens every few years."

Mansfield, who received one of the Government Department's two summas in 1953, said yesterday that the low number of magna and cum laude degrees in Government this year is the result of a new, tougher policy.

"There was a conscious attempt to tighten up as opposed to last year's excessive number, and to return to our historical pattern of awarding 35 to 40 per cent of the class honors," Mansfield said.

The Philosophy Department also awarded no summa degrees this year, but a little over 50 per cent of the department received honors.

Karl E. Case, head tutor in Economics, reported a rise of more than 10 per cent in the number of honors degrees awarded by his department because of what he called a "super-good bunch of people."

In History and Literature, which is an honors-only concentration. 25 per cent of the students graduated without departmental honors.

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