1980-81

                                SENATE DOCUMENT #19



                                 APC DOCUMENT #19

                                 Policy on Honors





        The Academic Policies Committee recommends to the Faculty Senate

        approval of the following policy on Honors for inclusion in the

        catalog.  





        Delete the entire text under "Academic Honors" and "Departmental

        Distinction" on page 29 of the 1980-81 catalog and replace this

        text with the following:  



             The university awards two different kinds of academic honors.

        Departmental Distinction is granted for outstanding performance in

        the major program.  Cum laude, magna cum laude, and summa cum laude

        are granted for outstanding university-wide performance.  The

        faculty has the sole final authority to award honors and is guided

        in its decisions by the Honors Committee.  



             Departmental Distinction is awarded only upon recommendation

        by the major department.  Each department applies standards for

        this award which have been approved by the Honors Committee.  The

        Honors Committee approves these recommendations and reports them to

        the Faculty.  



             The honors of cum laude, magna cum laude, and summa cum laude

        are automatically awarded to those students whose GPA on all

        transcript work attempted here and elsewhere for graduation would

        place them in the top 9%, 4%, and 1% of the most recent three

        years' combined graduating classes.  The Honors Committee will

        annually determine the required GPA for automatic honors.  In

        addition, because the work of some students is underrepresented by

        grades alone, the Honors Committee solicits recommendations from

        the Faculty prior to each commencement on a standard form which are

        used for two purposes.  The Honors Committee may recommend to the

        Faculty that a student receive a higher honor than the one which

        would apply automatically.  In numbers not normally to exceed 1% of

        the graduating class, the Honors Committee may additionally

        recommend to the Faculty that students whose grades do not qualify

        them for automatic honors receive honors at whatever levels seem

        appropriate.  These two recommendations are to be approved by the

        Faculty.  



        Rationale:  



        The APC presents this proposal on its own initiative after

        discussions with the Honors Committee and other interested faculty

        members.  During the discussion, the following points of agreement

        emerged.  



        1.  Something needs to be done to insure that August, December,

            and May graduates are treated equitably.

        2.  Latin awards primarily should reflect university-wide

            accomplishment.


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        3.  Grades are a good indicator of accomplishment but in some

            cases further factors ought to be considered.

        4.  Honors are a competitive matter and should be limited to

            about the top 10% of a graduating class.

        5.  Transfer students are hard to judge.



        Because none of these factors affects the current practice on

        Departmental Distinction only a change in language is proposed in

        that area to make the catalog statement conform to current

        practice.  



        The major changes are proposed for Latin Honors.  We propose a

        system of floating automatic cut-in GPA standards for Latin honors.

        The float was inserted to compensate for grade inflation/deflation

        to hold honors to about 10% of a graduating class.  This mechanism

        should answer to points 1 and 4 above.  The best single measure we

        have of university-wide accomplishment is the work presented at

        graduation.  We propose to use this GPA as the basis for the

        automatic awarding of Latin Honors.  We propose to make transfer

        students eligible for honors on the basis of the work accepted in

        transfer plus the work taken here to complete the degree.  This

        provision should take care of points 2 and 5 above.  



        The Committee agrees with the inadequacy of grades as a sole

        measure of accomplishment.  We propose that the present structure

        be kept to deal with two kinds of cases.  Some students would

        automatically qualify for one honor but because of special

        considerations (a weak first year, English as a second language,

        abundant A+++ performance, etc.) there might be sentiment that a

        still higher honor should be awarded.  The Honors Committee could

        recommend upgrading of Honors in these cases.  The proposal places

        no limit on the ability of the Honors Committee to respond to these

        cases.  Very rarely, there are students whose overall class rank is

        poor but who nonetheless still have preeminently those qualities we

        look for in awarding honors.  The committee may recommend a very

        small number of these students (about 1 a year) to the faculty for

        consideration.  This mechanism answers to point 3.  





        Effective date:  Summer, 1981.  





                        (Passed by Faculty Senate 10/23/80)