By 4 p.m. yesterday, the campus was peppered with seniors cheering and toting champagne bottles—many of them assembled on the lawn in front of Olin Library at an impromptu party—as the deadline for written senior theses arrived, at long last, and passed. The deadlines for Art Studio, Dance, Film and Music theses were interspersed between the last week of March and this past weekend.
Amidst the celebrations—and the simultaneous feelings of accomplishment and loathing for one’s thesis—our look at the expenses that a student encounters in the Film Studies department, particularly in producing a final project, raises questions about the expenses that any senior candidate for an Honors Thesis must incur. The costs of printing and binding a written thesis amount to around $200. An Art Studio thesis totals several hundred dollars. A Film Studies thesis—despite regulations that intend to level the playing field, such as being prohibited from filming outside of a 50-mile radius around campus—may total thousands of dollars.
These expenses add to the already walloping $45,000-plus annual tuition for the University and, perhaps more importantly, the pressure that the University places on students to take on a thesis.
Although the written thesis requires funding for, essentially, only printing and binding, it is not fair to assume that every student is able to shell out even $200. The University’s Thorndike Fund, which intends to reimburse students for the costs of preparing a thesis, does not suffice. It cannot reimburse each thesis candidate fully.
Furthermore, President Michael Roth hopes to instate an academic capstone experience, similar to the senior thesis, that each senior would be required to fulfill in order to graduate. If all students, despite differing profiles of financial need, must complete a capstone experience, would the University provide financial assistance? The term “experience” suggests a project that is more involved than a written paper, which is the form that the majority of current theses take, and this suggests more or higher expenses—especially considering Roth’s affinity for interdisciplinary, outside-of-the-classroom learning. What if expenses could reach the high costs that they do under the current Honors Thesis program? Would the University be able to aid each student or, at least, all students that are in great need of aid?
If the University continues to push students to embark on final theses or projects or experiences, it should commit itself to helping us pay the way.
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