Word: summa
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Dates: during 1870-1879
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Under this head the words "degree with distinction" are clearly defined. "Distinction in the degree shall be in three grades; indicated by the words cum laude, magna cum laude, and summa cum laude, respectively." Parts at Commencement are to be assigned to those who receive one of the above marks of distinction. Ninety per cent of the maximum mark on the general scale for the whole course takes a summa cum laude; eighty per cent, a magna cum laude; and seventy-five per cent, or Honorable Mention in any study, provided sixty-five per cent has been attained...
...which ten or twelve men only succeed in winning is to be materially diminished by the fact that fifty or sixty students win an entirely different honor, one of a much lower grade. It would be fully as reasonable to say that the one man who obtains a degree summa cum laude gets less honor because thirty men have a degree cum laude...
...This objection might have some show of plausibility if the standard of requirements for parts were lowered, and nothing more done. But by the new system new inducements to work have been offered to these men, - the new grades, "honorable mention" and magna cum laude, have been established, and summa cum laude, an honor which heretofore has had very nearly no effect at all, will now influence the work of perhaps seven men. So, instead of giving less encouragement, the College offers stronger inducements to study to the men who would now get Commencement parts...
...that by the new plan the principle of an honor-system - that men should be encouraged to work - is more fully carried out. By the establishment of the several grades, honors may influence the work not only of those who are studying for a Commencement part or for summa cum laude, but of every man whose marks are over seventy per cent; for prizes of some sort will be within easy reach...
...degree of A. B. magna cum laude shall be given to every one (not receiving summa cum laude) who attains an average mark of 80 per cent on the general scale for the whole course, or of 85 per cent for the last three years, or who receives HONORS in any department, or who has Honorable Mention in three studies, or in two studies, being starred in one of them...