Summa

A summa is a hard-to-get commodity, and the Social Sciences area is the worst place to do the shopping. The recent report to the Faculty on this uneven situation merits consideration and action from those departments which were cited for their relatively high number of summas, as well as from those with a relatively low total. The report revealed that the fields of English, Government, Biochemistry, and especially Economics and History awarded far fewer summas to students who, on the basis of grades, would be qualified, than most fields in the Humanities and Natural Sciences.

While seniors in most of the Natural Sciences are judged only by their course grades, students in the five low fields face the additional obstacles of theses and general examinations. The Whitla report noted, in addition, that "even if grades were used as the only criterion, Social Science graduates would not receive in relation to their ability the same percentage of highest honor degrees."

At present the "A" student in Economics, for example, has approximately one-fourth the chance of receiving a summa than his counterpart has in Physics or Mathematics. While this might be partially explained by the nature of the fields (or the age at which significant contributions are made in the sciences as opposed to the social sciences), the discrepancy is far too large. The student in the social sciences should be placed in a more even competitive position.

Several corrections for the present imbalance could be adopted. Primarily, the natural sciences could stiffen their requirements and raise the present standards for summa candidates. The social sciences might consider a slight liberalization of their standards for a summa, although rigid requirements are preferable to lenient ones.

It is probably easier to select the brilliant scientist on an undergraduate level than it is to choose the highly talented historian. Certainly no department should award summas on a quota basis. On the other hand, the criteria should be harmonized so that the qualified student, regardless of field of concentration, has a fair chance to be graduated summa cum laude.