Ec. Stings Concentrators

Talk about a rude awakening. The Department of Economics this week surprised their concentrators-the largest group of students in a single department-with the announcement that only economics classes, and not classes in related fields, would be considered for their GPA.

This change, regardless of its merit, was instituted in an unfair and deceitful way. By not sending seniors and other concentrators an official announcement and especially by making the change retroactive, the Economics Department acted irresponsibly toward its concentrators.

For a department to change its honors-degree criteria in the middle of a student's career provokes justified distrust and anger. If the Economics Department would have changed the criteria only for incoming sophomores and even juniors, who have four semesters left to change their class make-up, the decision would not be the subject of such ire. The decision to include seniors, however, is indefensible, unless the Economics Department is simply admitting that their honors are simply arbitrary since they have no time to react to changing requirements.

Economics Head Tutor Andrew Metrick correctly points out that the number of honors degrees awarded will not change significantly, but that is not the point; seniors who can no longer receive honors consider the change significant and rightly so.

Senior economics concentrators have spent four years working towards honors degrees, following the recommendations of economics tutors and advisors, yet all that advice has been invalidated at the flick of a pen.

Perhaps this is an indication that Harvard's largest concentration can think only in bulk.