Theses Should Remain Optional

WHOA, HOSS. OUR alternative self above needs to come down to the ground for a moment. Just because five out of six Dartmouth students graduate with- out writing a thesis doesn't mean they're failing to complete a "significant project." Each year, ten Senior Fellows do signficant projects. This year there are 90 Presidential Scholars in the class of 1993 who assist professors with their research.

The rest aren't all dilettantes. Twenty-one percent of the class of 1990 went on immediately to graduate school. Nearly three-quarters said they planned to pursue farther study within five years.

But our flip side nonetheless says students should be forced to write a long paper as some magical means of injecting "rigor" into the system. Does Dartmouth exist to encourage the individual pursuit of knowledge or merely to set up hurdles to jump? The liberal arts are a vast process of leading horses to water. Dartmouth should not be in the business of forcing them to drink.

The College now gears its education on a remarkably individual basis. Faculty help each student craft an academic plan. This system gives everyone the opportunity to have a significant academic experience. Should we make such an experience available to students or cram it down their throats?

Dartmouth already has an extraordinarily busy faculty. Professors are expected to be both first-rate researchers and inspiring teachers. The theory (which has been proven time and time again at the College) is that the two roles create a kind of hybrid vigor: the scholar enriches the teacher, and vice versa. If theses were required of every student, the time faculty spend on honors students would be wasted on resentful undergraduates.

So, proposes our blithe other self, simply cut back on research and make faculty grade over-long, reluctantly performed papers. What a remarkable proposition! In one single move, the College could drain much of the excitement that permeates the learning that goes on here.

The system as it stands is far from broke. And a thesis requirement is a lousy fix.