(Editor's note: this story was corrected om 09/15/2005. It was incorrectly reported that students must submit a thesis in the first three weeks of their senior year, when in fact it must be submitted in the first three weeks of their final year.)
ASU's Barrett Honors College is lowering its GPA graduation requirement to give students more academic freedom, according to BHC Associate Dean Margaret Nelson.
Starting this semester, an honors student must have a cumulative GPA of 3.25 to graduate. The requirement was 3.4.
"This wasn't done to make it easier for people to graduate," Nelson said. "The decision was more about creating benchmarks in the honors experience."
Along with a lower required GPA, honors students are now required to take human events courses their freshman year and submit their thesis during the first three weeks of their final year.
Up until now, students could take their human events courses and submit their thesis anytime before graduation.
Being an honors student should not only be about getting grades, Nelson said. The changes are designed to let students take a wider variety of classes.
Tiffany Chiang, the vice president of the Barrett Honors College Council, which represents honors students to the dean, said she has "mixed feelings" about the new requirements.
The dean is trying to give students a lighter workload, but it might hurt the college in the future, Chiang added.
"This may lower the prestige of the honors college," she said.
Karen Bruhn, a faculty member in the honors college, said students shouldn't worry about their degrees losing any distinction.
"People outside of academia don't care about [GPA]," she said.
Nelson added the college won't lose any prestige because the overall program is improving.
"This is orientated toward retention," Nelson said.
Fewer than 50 percent of students that enter the honors college stay with it, and these changes can improve that, she added.
James Busch, an electrical engineering senior and honors college student, said he understands what the deans are trying to do, but lowering the GPA requirement still concerns him.
"I think it will make it less of an honor to graduate from the honor's college," he said.
Busch said he worries most that graduate schools or employers will think less of his degree.
"I'll agree with [the change in GPA] as long as it doesn't affect the reputation," he said.
The reputation, however, won't be hurt, and the changes will "probably" help retention and allow students to take more academic chances, Bruhn said.
"They're afraid to take classes out of their expertise," she said.
Reach the reporter at michael.famiglietti@asu.edu.
