|
Thursday, 01 March 2007 |
Graduating with honors: a system in progress
A proposal at a recent Faculty Senate meeting to increase the requirements to graduate with honors not only drew concern from some members of the Senate, but also from members of The Appalachian.
The argument for the proposal was that there were too many students acquiring honors status, thus diminishing its prestige.
The Appalachian agrees with the contrary argument that this system
would unfairly punish those students who major in departments with
lower average GPAs.
For example, the average GPA for students in the Walker College of
Business, 2.70, is nearly a full grade point lower than the Reich
College of Education, which has an average of 3.65.
Furthermore, the College of Business maintains the normal proportion of
honors graduates, as the December 2006 graduation had nearly 13 percent
of business students with honors.
This stands in stark contrast to the proportions of the College of
Education and Hayes School of Music, which had, respectively, 58
percent and 56 percent of its students graduate with honors.
The reason some majors have a much higher GPA than others is a discussion for another day.
What does matter is that just because some departments are graduating a
proportionally high number of honor students does not mean departments
with correct proportions should be punished.
The average GPA of all university undergraduates during the 2004-05
school year was 2.92 – a figure that supports the current honors
requirements.
As the system stands, graduating students with a GPA of 3.45 earn Cum
Laude, those with a 3.65 earn Magna Cum Laude, and those with 3.85 earn
Summa Cum Laude.
These requirements are already higher than those at some University of
North Carolina schools, such as N.C. State, which requires 3.25 for Cum
Laude, 3.50 for Magna Cum Laude and 3.75 Summa Cum Laude.
Due to some of the controversy surrounding Appalachian’s system, ideas for a new system have arisen.
The Appalachian agrees with Kathy A. Smith, center director for the
College of Business, who suggested a better system would be to select
the top students within each department as honor students.
This system makes the most sense since it allows the top 15 percent of
students from each department to be named honor students. This would
maintain the graduation numbers in departments with correct
proportions, while limiting departments with a high proportion.
It would also increase the prestige of the honors degree.
This system would be similar to the one currently in place when
selecting Junior Marshals for the May Commencement Ceremony.
Individuals asked to be involved as Junior Marshals are chosen because
they have the highest GPAs in their departments.
This system, or one like it, could be easily implemented for setting the standards for graduating with honors.
Trackback(0)
 |
Opinion 
TrackBack URI for this entry
Show/Hide comments
