The Rice Thresher (Houston, Tex.), Vol. 81, No. 18, Ed. 1 Friday, February 4, 1994 Page: 3 of 16
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OPINION
THE RICE THRESHER FRIDAY, FEBRUARY 4, 1994 3
Honors diploma system hurts future job opportunities
Clint
Patterson
Rice is an academically rigorous
university. Students who perform well
academically at Rice deserve appro-
priate recognition of their accomplish-
ments.
Appropriate recognition of excel-
lent academic performance is impor-
tant for graduates who must enter an
extremely competitive market for jobs
Closer
Look
and graduate school positions. While
graduating with honors from Rice
should be no small feat, it is important
that the university give its graduates
every advantage possible to ensure
that they will be able to compete suc-
cessfully with graduates from compa-
rable universities.
Currently, the university fails to do
this with respect to graduation hon-
ors. The university is remarkably
stingy with its honors.
Rice honors only 20 percent of its
graduates with summa (three per-
cent), magna (seven percent), and
cum iaude (10 percent) distinctions.
In 1993, these percentages corre-
sponded to a 3.94,3.84, and 3.64 GPA
respectively.
By comparison, Harvard awarded
69 percent of its graduates summa,
magna and cum laude honors upon
graduation in 1993. Graduation hon-
ors are a little more reasonable at Yale
where 30 percent of the graduates
receive these honors annually.
Emory awards these honors to
those with a 3.50 GPA or better, while
Penn, Syracuse and Duke honor any-
one graduating with a 3.40 GPA or
higher.
In short, among universities that
grant summa, magna and cum laude
distinctions, Rice awards honors to a
smaller percentage of its graduating
students than almost any other uni-
versity in the nation.
While Rice students leave the cam-
pus with one of the best educations in
the world today, many students leave
at a comparative disadvantage rela-
tive to students from schools with
more liberal honors policies.
Clearly,Rice is comparable to many
of these schools, and Rice students
certainly work as hard as many stu-
dents at these schools.
Why, then, does the university
maintain a policy that seems only to
disadvantage its students in a com-
petitive market for jobs and grad
school slotsPThe only obvious reason
is that graduating with honors from
Rice presumably has a greater value
than graduating with honors from
Duke, for example, since it is more
difficult to graduate with honors from
Rice.
However, a brief survey of recruit-
ers found that this reasoning is unsup-
ported. Rice gains absolutely nothing
from employers by maintaining its
strict requirements for graduation
honors.
Thegraduating seniors lose a great
deal, especially when competing for
jobs and grad school positions with
students from universities with more
generous honors policies.
Certainly a recruiter is impressed
by a 3.50 GPA from Rice, but an iden-
tical record and cum laude honors
from Duke are just as, if not more,
impressive.
Graduating with honors is a leg up
Rice gains absolutely
nothing from employers by
maintaining its strict
requirements for
graduation honors. *
in an extremely competitive world,
and Rice's policy seems only to place
a handicap on its students. Recruiters
are unaware of the fact that Rice grants
honors to fewer graduates. To them it
makes little difference that Rice gives
honors to fewer students than Duke
and Syracuse do.
The distinction is not more valu-
able if it comes from Rice, and the
university's policy only advantages
students from Duke and Syracuse who
can write cum laude on their resumes
at the expense of students from Rice
with similar academic records who
cannot
New proposals are to face student vote
Abigail
Martin
The Honor Council is once again
presenting changes to the Honor Sys-
tem constitution which must be ap-
proved by a three-quarters vote of the
student body during the General Elec-
tion. TheCouncilhasdebatedatlength
about these changes and welcomes
any questions regarding the issues at
hand.
This year we are presenting only
three changes to the student body.
These three changes represent the
Council's growing concern over the
r HONOR
COUNCIL
past few years with two major issues:
the so-called "withdrawal clause" and
Council members' attendence at meet-
ings.
The first question to be voted upon
is the removal of two clauses from the
current Constitution: the first para-
graph of Article XII stating that:
A person confronted with an accusa-
tion by the Council has the option of
either proceeding with the hearing or of
voluntarily withdrawing from the Uni-
versity within three days (with the un-
derstanding that no formal action will
be undertaken), providing the with-
drawal is effective until the commence-
ment of the second semester following.
and the statement currently listed
under Article XXI:
If a student accused of a violation is
absent from Rice University for two or
moresemesters without having informed
the Council and Dean of Students of his
intent to withdraw, the student will
forfeit credit for the course in question,
but the accusation will not otherwise be
pursued.
As you can see these two clauses
both refer to the ability of students to
leave the university should they be
accused of an Honor Code violation
without going through the normal
proceedings.
The second question on our pro-
posed ballot would replace the cur-
rent clause under Article XXI with the
following:
If a student accused of a violation is
absent from Rice University such that
the Council is unable to take any further
action concerning the accusation, the
student will forfeit credit for the course
in question. In addition, the Council
will keep all material evidence on file
for five years, with the option of pursu-
ing the accusationâ– should the student
re-enroll within that time period.
It should be noted that the imple-
mentation of this change should it be
approved is contingent upon student
approval of the first question.
The third question proposes an
addition to Article II of the By-Laws of
the Honor System It would become
point number six under the article
concerning meetings and would read:
Any Honor Council member may
not miss more than three meetings per
academic year without a valid excuse.
Any member who does so will automati-
cally be considered for removal. Gradu-
ate students' obligations will be noted.
Traditionally this has been as-
sumed Honor Council policy among
its members. However, we would like
the opportunity to place it permanently
within our Constitution.
As a Council we realize that there
will be many questions concerning
the reasons for and implications of
thesechanges. Forthisreasonweare
planning a series of editorial columns
explaining the issues involved and the
reasons we feel these are necessary
changes.
The Council strongly supports
these changes and wants the student
body to be educated so that it can
make an intelligent decision.
In order for this to occur students
must take a role in the process.
There is a reason that Honor Sys-
tem Constitutional changes must be
approved the student body: the
changes affect not only the Council,
but you as students. We cannot ex-
pectyou to abide by a system in which
you have no say. Yet, your input is
crucial if the system is to best serve
the Rice community.
We can only answer questions or
concerns that are asked of us, and we
hope that you will approach us as
often as is necessary.
Ideally every student will feel com-
fortable enough with the issues in-
volved to make an informed decision
on election day. Open discussion is
not only encouraged, but greatly ap-
preciated as a means to educate one
another, both you as students who
live by the Honor System and Council
members as elected members repre-
senting student opinions.
Abigail Martin is the Honor System
Revisions Committee Chair and a
Hanszen College senior.
Latin
FROM PAGE 2
to be end the result of his research.
Trusting Rollo and the fine education
he received in the hands of the Kent
City School System (and the sound
quality of my answering machine, as it
turns out), I slapped the phrase in
question onto the end of my column.
And, as far as I was concerned, that
was that
But the road goes on forever and
the party never ends, as Cecily Young
has proven to me. She called me and
asked just what it was I was trying to
say at the end of my column.
I told her, at which* point she went
into hysterics. I believe at one point
her husband actually had to give oxy-
gen just to keep her conscious.
It seems clear, then, that the uni-
versity should correct this problem. I
do not advocate that we adopt an out-
rageously liberal policy like Harvard's,
where it is more distinctive to gradu-
ate without honors than with honors.
I merely propose that Rice expand its
honors requirements to levels in line
with those of comparable universi-
ties.
Levels similar to those at Yale
would be acceptable, where the top 5
percent, the next 10 percent and the
next 15 percent receive summa, magna
and cum laude honors respectively.
Another option is to establish GPA
requirements for these honors. Ac-
ceptable GPA cutoffs would be 3.90,
3.75 and 3.50.
This proposal seems fairer in that
it gives students a concrete GPA level
to shoot for.
Furthermore, this proposal elimi-
nates competition for graduation hon-
ors by awarding students on the basis
of academic success instead of rela-
tive academic success.
Anotherviable option is in place at
Emory where all students with at least
a 3.50 GPA receive honors. Magna
and summa honors are granted to
thosewho complete a thesis and those
who complete a thesis judged to be
suitable for publication, respectively.
This proposal would serve the addi-
tional purpose of providing incentives
for qualified students to complete a
senior thesis.
Yet another option is to shift the
responsibility for conference of hon-
ors to the departments. This option
would compensate for any department-
specific grade inflation and strengthen
students' ties to their major depart-
ments.
Any of these proposals would still
leave Rice's honors requirements
among the most demanding
nation while allowing Rice grac -a^rs
to compete on equal footing in an
increasingly competitive world.
Clint Patterson is a member of the SA
Committee on the Academic Environ-
ment and the President of Iu)vett
College.
The phrase "Smite Vona Temp ores
Volvere" is, as it turns out, essentially
gibberish.
First of all, I misunderstood Rollo,
who was trying to say "Bona" not
"Vona", which accounts for a large
part of why the translation had lost
something. There are also some is-
sues of tenses and gender which I
wont get into, largely because I don't
understand them at all. Suffice it to
say that 1 now have it on. excellent
authority how tov say what I have been
trying to say since last September.
The moral of this sad, sick, twisted
tale? Dont send your children to Ohio's
public schools.
Tempora Bona Volvant.
Jym Schwartz is a second-year graduate
student in the Department of Geology
and Geophysics.
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Howley, Peter & Epperson, Kraettli. The Rice Thresher (Houston, Tex.), Vol. 81, No. 18, Ed. 1 Friday, February 4, 1994, newspaper, February 4, 1994; Houston, Texas. (https://texashistory.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metapth245897/m1/3/?q=%22%22~1: accessed June 22, 2024), University of North Texas Libraries, The Portal to Texas History, https://texashistory.unt.edu.; crediting Rice University Woodson Research Center.