This March, class of 2011 Government majors were faced with a new policy for receiving Departmental Honors: out of 80 rising senior majors, approximately 20 were offered the opportunity to receive Honors. These students were given the option of submitting a thesis proposal or pursing the new Exam Track, an option that will be offered during the spring semester of senior year. The change, which was intended to increase opportunities for receiving Honors, has also prevented several interested students from pursuing theses.
Before this year, writing a thesis or undertaking an independent project were the only options available to pursue Departmental Honors in Government. Any student, however, could submit a thesis proposal for consideration under the old guidelines.
Under the new system, nominated students interested in the thesis track could submit a proposal for consideration. These proposals were examined and students were notified as to whether or not their proposals had been accepted. Even at this stage, not every proposal was accepted.
Students pursuing the thesis track will enroll in a Capstone Thesis Seminar in the fall semester, and students following the Exam Track will take a Capstone Seminar in Political Science during the spring, which requires a 10 page written exam at the end of semester that constitutes their entire Honors application.
“The main reason [for the change] was because faculty go on leave essentially randomly,” said Assistant Professor of Government Mary Alice Haddad. “It didn’t seem fair that if strong students in the Government department—who happened to have research projects that were in certain areas and that particular faculty person went on leave—couldn’t get honors even though they were excellent students. We wanted to broaden the opportunities of students who wanted to try to get honors.”
Government majors have expressed confusion about the specific criteria used to select the students who were offered Honors—GPA cutoffs, professors’ personal preferences, and other benchmarks have all been discussed by speculating students.
“I could be 0.1 off, I could be 0.4 off, but no one’s been able to tell me what the [GPA] cutoff was, whether there was a cutoff, or exactly how they chose students,” a rising senior government major who wished to remain anonymous wrote in an e-mail to The Argus. “I’m not happy about this situation right now, but I do think I would have felt better if I could know the criteria and know whether or not I fit into that. I really just feel like so many people were left completely in the dark about this new process.”
Chair of the Government Department John Finn said that both the Honors Committee and the entire department were involved in selecting the students, but did not offer more information.
“Students can direct themselves to the Department’s website, where the honors program is described in full,” he said.
According to Haddad, who was the only professor The Argus contacted that was willing to explain the process beyond referring students to the Department’s website, a committee representing the various subfields of the Government Department was established to determine the group of nominated students. Although the process involved basic GPA lists, the full transcripts of all of the approximately 80 Government majors in the class of 2011 were also analyzed. According to Haddad, faculty members were in widespread agreement over the final list of 20 nominated students.
Some students, however, have said that the information provided to them was insufficient, even after referring to the website.
“There was limited information on the website,” said another rising senior Government major who also wished to remain anonymous. “The whole process was really mysterious to me.”
Students who are chosen to apply to write an Honors thesis must submit a compelling research statement and have the support of a faculty member, according to the policy guidelines. Some of the approximately 60 remaining students who have not been nominated to submit a thesis or take the Exam Track will be offered “late” entry into the Exam Track in the fall semester of their senior year.
Although the Department decided on the changes two years ago, Haddad said that because the policy is new, there are bound to be several snags in the beginning.
“It’s the first year that this has happened so it’s expected by everybody that there are going to be unhappy people on all sides,” she said.
According to the Department’s website, the new policy will be evaluated again in three years.
Meanwhile, many students remain frustrated over their access to the Honors track.
President Michael Roth has stressed the importance of including a more standardized senior capstone project in the University’s curriculum.
“Every student should have an opportunity to do a senior project,” he said in an interview with The Argus. “But I’ve also said it doesn’t necessarily have to be a thesis.”
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