Credit for Honors

Concentrators in several fields which lack tutorial received something of a jolt this month when they opened their course catalogues and found that the customary thesis for honors course was no longer listed. This absence would continue the thesis for honors system, while denying thesis writers in fields like Economics the half-course credit they currently may claim for the work they put in on their magnum opus.

During the thirties, a complicated "course reduction" system was in effect, by which a man who wrote a thesis needed fewer than the customary 16 courses to graduate. But the workings of the system proved so complex that at the Student Council's suggestion, the current thesis for honors was established in its stead. By 1941, however, the Faculty voted to abolish this course, but a series of wartime rulings has succeeded in keeping the system alive. Now, with the "duration" rules swept from the books, the thesis for honors course will perish unless a new vote at a mid-May Faculty meeting saves it from oblivion.

The logic of giving course credit for the thesis is clear: original work in one's field should be a distinctive part of the honor candidate's scholastic career, and such work would be seriously impeded when the thesis writer must also carry a regular course load at the same time he should be busy with research. This is clearly recognized in fields which have tutorial, where the honors candidate may obtain course credit for taking tutorial. In fields where there is no tutorial, the work of producing a thesis is even more difficult, because of the lack of guidance for the student until he gets an adviser in his Senior year. The Faculty would do well to take such factors into consideration before dropping such an important aid to serious scholarship as the thesis course for honors.