Faculty to vote on honors change

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by Joy Williamson

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"February is early enough to take action for this spring's graduation," Chemical Engineering Professor Constantine Armeniades said.

SA President Maryana Iskander said, "We hope the faculty can come to a decision, whatever it is."

She added that students "should become familiar with the issue and lobby their professors to attend the meeting and vote on the proposal."

The original SA resolution was approved by the Committee on Examinations and Standings (XNS) and then by the University Council.

A decision was deferred by the faculty because of a lack of comparative information from other universities.

This information was recently released by the Office of the Registrar and has reopened the question.

Even though the recommendation was referred back to the XNS Committee by the general faculty, Armeniades said that the XNS committee decided at its meeting yesterday that the issue does not require another discussion, leaving the faculty to make the final decision.

"The sense of the [XNS] Committee is to support last year's decision," Armeniades said.

Passed by the SA Senate in 1993, the measure would increase the number of students graduating with honors. Currently, 20 percent of stud-ents graduate with honors.

The SA would like to see this number increase to 30 percent to mirror the number of students on the President's Honor Roll each semester.

Melissa Chaika, a student representative on the University Council, hopes the faculty will see the SA's point of view.

"Since the discrepancies between the President's Honor Roll and graduation honors is so great, I hope the faculty considers this a viable option," Chaika said.

Stephen Zeff, professor of accounting, opposes the proposition. In a letter to the editor in the Feb. 24 edition of the Thresher , he enumerated several reasons why Rice should not expand honors distribution, including the belief that doing so would diminish the distinction of receiving honors.

Zeff also pointed out that the President's Honor Roll and graduation honors "fulfill different roles." The President's Honor Roll distinguishes students who have performed well for the semester; graduation honors commends those who have performed well during their entire academic careers at Rice.

"If Harvard, Duke and other like-minded universities wish to dilute the significance of university honors, why should Rice follow?" Zeff wrote.

This item appeared in the News section of the November 3, 1995 issue.

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