Turnabout is Not Fair Play

This past week, Harvard College alerted 57 sophomores that they had not actually won the Detur Prize, a $35 book embossed with the Detur and Harvard seals given for first-year academic achievement. These 57 students had been notified in August that they would be recipients of this award. This confusion over the winners of the Detur Prize alerts us to two major problems here at Harvard.

First, Harvard clearly has an obsession with inflation. We have all heard discussion over grade inflation, but now it seems that Harvard is toying with the thought of prize inflation.

Second, Harvard just seems to have fun dishing out failure. Apparently, sending out 16,000 rejection letters is not enough to quench the thirst of this mighty, ego-sucking beast. It’s one thing to award a prize, but it is clearly another to dole out recognition solely for the pleasure of snatching it back from unsuspecting students who probably didn’t even know the award existed in the first place. Harvard should be condemned for laughing in the corner as students stood disappointed and sulking at their mailboxes.

However, there are two other possibilities. It is possible that Harvard’s 15-point grading scale is too confusing for even Harvard to decipher. Or maybe Harvard just isn’t as smart as we thought it was. Therefore, The Crimson rescinds Harvard’s Detur prize. Take that.