Opinion To Honor the Open Curriculum

Last Tuesday, the Committee on Educational Policy passed a proposal to amend the college’s policy on Latin honors. Under the previous system, Latin honors were awarded based on class rank, as well as the relevant department’s assessment of the student’s thesis. The new policy maintains the thesis assessment, but now evaluates summa and magna honors based on median letter grades and whether a student has passed at least one course in each of four academic disciplines: arts, humanities, sciences and mathematics, and social and behavioral sciences. Students currently enrolled in the college are grandfathered into the old system, though. They will be evaluated with the system under which they would receive the highest honors, but all matriculating classes henceforth will receive honors under the new policy.

Although the Editorial Board approves of the elimination of class rank as a Latin honors consideration, as it alleviates student stress surrounding rigid grade cutoffs, we believe that the new breadth requirement is fundamentally harmful to academic culture at Amherst. The breadth requirement’s call to exploration reflects the tensions between the open curriculum and the values of the liberal arts: While many students develop well-roundedness by exploring the curriculum, others use the freedom to specialize in the department of their expertise. The new policy intends to encourage a more explorative approach to the open curriculum rather than a path of specialization. While The Editorial Board affirms the value of an interdisciplinary education, we believe that the policy’s top-down prescription to encourage greater variety damages student curiosity and class dynamics and is ultimately at odds with the college’s institutional academic values — namely, freedom and student-directed exploration.

On one hand, the breadth requirement will impact the actual classroom experience. While it may seem fruitful up front — students will stretch themselves to discover passions that they may not have otherwise and departments will better be able to source students of different academic backgrounds — this requirement overlooks the power of the open curriculum to cultivate genuine curiosity and passion through choice. When students are given freedom, classes are more often composed of those who are present because they want to be there, regardless of whether they have