By Lauren del Valle

NEWS EDITOR

Faculty and administration deliberated how to treat the transcript of a student who does not adequately complete their departmental honors thesis at the Full University Faculty meeting. The Undergraduate Academic Affairs Committee (UAAC), a subcommittee of the University Senate, proposed refiling the honors curriculum as an independent study. The vote was tabled for reconsideration after strong faculty opposition led by Associate Dean of Hofstra University’s Honors College Neil Donahue. 

Upon reviewing the Departmental Honors Bulletin for revision in spring 2014, the UAAC believed there was potential for confusion when evaluating a student’s transcript if they are registered under an honors course listing but did not also achieve departmental “honors” or “high honors.”

“I thought it was objectionable because first of all the fundamental rule of records,” said Donahue. “You do not tamper with historical records… the fact that the student was eligible to sign up – that’s a fact. The fact that the student was given permission by the department – that’s a fact. The fact that the student did the research – that’s a fact. If they did it insufficiently,  that’s reflected as in any course – in the grade.”

The committee based their decision largely on the 58 percent completion rate uncovered by a research study conducted through the Department of Institutional Research. The survey inquired about to the completion rate of departmental honors in the past five years. However according to Dean Donahue’s scrutiny of these results, it was plagued by false negatives and clerical errors. 

When breaking down the 19 of 61 cases in which students were registered for the departmental honors course, but were not awarded departmental honors, four were mistakes in the system due to clerical errors. Ten instances were false negatives due to a full-year course sequence whereby the student must register for one thesis course each semester before presenting their research to earn departmental “honors.” The remaining five outliers were due to various particular circumstances; including scheduling conflicts preventing the required presentation or a student’s final GPA being too low. 

“The kicker was – not a single student was denied on merit,” said Donahue. “Though I’ve heard of it happening in the past, it has to be a theoretical possibility. It is very rare.”

Dr. Kathleen Wallace, philosophy department chair noted that one or two students take on the year-long project and only two students have failed to complete the honors thesis in the past 20 years. 

“We’re all comfortable with it, we don’t see a need to change it,” said Wallace. “Most people, if they’re doing an honors thesis, they do it.”

The political science department houses three or four students pursuing departmental honors. According to department chair Dr. Rosanna Perotti, the political science department has in fact altered the course number of an incomplete honors thesis to reflect an independent study, but it is rare. 

“I heard at that meeting a recommendation sort of between the two that sounded wise to me… the project could be called ‘senior research project,’” said Perotti. “That would allow anyone looking at the transcript one way or another to know that this student was engaged in something special; particularly important when a student goes off to graduate school. I know that students value that… and then when a student gets honors that will also be on the transcript. I think it works just fine on a department-by-department basis to tell you the truth.”

A student is eligible to pursue departmental honors once they have reached senior status. The minimum requirements include: an overall 3.4 GPA, a 3.5 GPA within their major, approval of the department chair and a faculty advisor as well as a minimum of 60 credit-hours completed in-residence. 

Specific honors curriculum varies by department but the semester or year-long process typically includes a thesis documenting one’s research ranging between 30 and 75 pages in length. Students are required to orally present a defense of their research at the conclusion of their second semester senior year, often at the bi-annual Undergraduate Research Day event in December or May.

The University Senate meets monthly to discuss an agenda involving all aspects of the Hofstra community and produce resolutions regarding policies. The Full University Faculty comprised mostly of deans, department chairs and associate professors will discuss and vote on such resolutions at their bi-semester meetings.

“Research in it of itself involves risk,” said Donahue. “There’s always going to be a percentage of research projects that fail… especially at the undergraduate level… the purpose of research is not just and not mainly the results. It’s to demonstrate mastery of the method.”