The faculty committee should be applauded for its recent decision to make it more difficult for Jumbos to graduate with honors. In raising the minimum GPA for Latin honors the faculty has set the bar higher for future students and ensured the value of an honors degree from Tufts.
The committee's decision comes against a backdrop of growing concern in the world of higher education regarding what is commonly known as "grade inflation." Many elite universities have long said that their students are smart ones and thus a large portion of them deserve high marks.
Such marks generally qualify these students for honors, resulting in situations where the vast majority of some classes graduate with honors - witness the absurdity of some 90 percent of newly minted Harvard graduates walking off with an honors degree under their now-changing system.
This is not to say that students who graduate from Tufts, or Harvard for that matter, are not smart ones. Indeed, the intrinsic value of a degree from one of the elites is high even without the gold seal of Latin honors affixed.
Paradoxically, large numbers of honors degrees decrease not only the value of the honors themselves but also the value of the degrees overall. One shouldn't need honors to make a Tufts degree worthwhile, but with well over half of graduating seniors receiving such honors, the implication of necessity is unavoidable.
The reduction of overall honors awarded will therefore benefit all involved. Those graduating sans honors will be secure with the value of their degree as is, while those who are fortunate to walk away cum laude or better can be confident that the distinction is truly meaningful.
Some, however, will argue that the solution implemented by the faculty committee is insufficient to meet the grade inflation problem. Perhaps awarding honors as a percentage of total degrees, as Harvard is now implementing, would be a more effective way of combating grade inflation.
But such a system would make each class hypercompetitive and preclude the teamwork that is often fostered in academic work at Tufts.
Our solution needs to be one that reduces the overall number of honors without making the undergraduate experience academic purgatory; thus, the solution offered by the committee would seem to be the best one for Tufts.
Of course, this may be a difficult adjustment for Tufts students, many of whom are used to getting high marks their entire academic careers. While some will certainly think it unfair to raise the bar on future classes, most will undoubtedly appreciate the tightening of honors requirements and welcome the challenge inherent in meeting them.
The raising of the honors bar is just another mark of the positive evolution of Tufts, with each incoming class being more competitive and well-qualified. It is a step that will ensure students today and tomorrow continue to strive for excellence in their work at Tufts University.
