The Bowdoin Orient

February 16, 2001
Volume CXXXII, Number 16

Faculty argues over departmental honors

by KITTY SULLIVAN, STAFF WRITER

   Honors projects for seniors have typically involved a vast amount of research, the formation of a thesis or hypothesis, and then a lengthy paper or experiment on a specific topic. However, the system of awarding honors to these independent projects can involve either one or three tiers of honors, depending on the department.
   Ten years ago, each department awarded honors, high honors, and highest honors, but some departments, including chemistry, biology, and art history, have diverged, feeling that only one level of honors is appropriate.
   Some members of the Bowdoin community have said that they believe it would be beneficial to institute a unified system for evaluating honors projects, where each department would issue the same level of honors.
   Craig McEwen, Dean for Academic Affairs, came from the sociology department, which went from three levels to one level of honors, and is the chair of a committee supporting the one tier system.
   McEwen noted that "grading honors theses isn't like grading an exam. It's a threshold decision about whether independent work deserves honors." He also mentioned the difficulty in evaluating the different types of projects: "It's hard to differ among students fairly when many outside factors enter into the final quality and character of the project."
   Brian Linton, assistant professor of chemistry, also said he felt it was unnecessary to make distinctions between levels of honors.
   "I do not see the need to demarcate those who moderately excelled from those who really excelled from those who were complete masters of their domain….A hierarchy of honors is unnecessary and may tend to marginalize those who only receive the lowest level," he said.
   Others see the proposed uniformity as an affront to departmental independence. David Page, the Charles Weston Pickard professor of chemistry, said, "Corporate uniformity works well for places like McDonalds and Wal-Mart but is counter-productive in a first tier small liberal arts college like Bowdoin."
   Supporters of the three-tiered system also cite the fundamental differences between honors projects in different departments as reasons to allow each department to issue its own standards for projects.
   Page also said, "Which approach to awarding honors is taken depends on the requirements of the discipline. An honors project in history is conducted in a very different way from one in an experimental discipline like biology, chemistry, or biochemistry."
   However, some students feel the discrepancy in honors distribution between departments is not necessarily fair, as they are limited in the amount of honors attained by the their field of study. For example, one student in the chemistry department can only receive honors, while his or her peer in the history department may get highest honors.
   Aaron Rosen '01 said, "Universally adopting the single-standard system doesn't mean foregoing academic rigor; it just means reducing some of the inconsistency and politics of the process."
   The decision will be reached in March with a faculty vote to determine if the system should be uniform across departments, and if so, with how many degrees of honors.