Barnard officials will move from a Grade Point Average to a percentile-based Latin honors system beginning in the fall semester to restore what some administrators called lost symbolic integrity, according to an e-mail sent last week by Sarah Rubin, BC '07 and Student Government Association academic affairs representative.

The new system will replace fixed GPAs with class percentiles as the determining criteria for graduating with honors. Under the old system, which was designed to recognize the top 35 percent of graduates, almost 70 percent of Barnard's 2005-06 class received honors.

The Barnard faculty approved the plan put forth by the Committee on Instruction-which includes students, faculty, and administrators who meet to shape academic issues-to alter the criteria required to earn Latin honors in 2005, but the plan was only finalized last week.

Flora Davidson, associate provost and head of the Committee on Instruction, said that the importance of Latin honors has been more symbolic than practical at Barnard in the past, but that "It was no longer even symbolic because everybody was getting it."

Dean of Studies Karen Blank said that the changes were adopted because the "sense that honors should reflect particularly outstanding work" had been lost.

Under the old system, students attaining a 3.4 GPA graduated cum laude, those with a 3.6 GPA graduated magna cum laude, and those with a 3.8 GPA graduated summa cum laude. Once fully implemented, the new system will bestow summa cum laude to the top 5 percent of graduates, magna cum laude to the next 10 percent, and cum laude to the following 20 percent.

According to a report from the Committee on Instruction, "the current pattern [of giving Latin honors to nearly 70 percent of seniors] does not preserve the integrity of Latin honors or the commitment the College has made to its students."

By comparison, at Columbia College, no more than 5 percent of the graduating class is awarded summa cum laude, and no more than 15 percent are awarded magna cum laude and cum laude, according to the CC Academic Affairs Web site. The School of Engineering and Applied Science awards only the top 25 percent of its graduating class with Latin honors.

Students were ambivalent about the change. "It's not as good for us at the moment but it's a good thing," Rachel Blatt, BC '10, said. "It makes it [receiving honors] more of a distinction if you're in that group but if you're not in that group, it's not a happy thing."

"If we want to be competitive among our peer institutions, that's a good way to do it," Rubin added. "It's good because a percentage isn't affected by grade inflation."

Davidson said that grade inflation did not drive the new system, which was implemented to preserve "the meaning of Latin honors."

Tamara Vital, BC '08, said she felt that the increased percentage of students graduating with Latin honors was indicative of increasingly hardworking Barnard students. "This seems silly," she said. "If there are a lot of people who do really well, they shouldn't not acknowledge it."

Officials said that the change to a rolling GPA system would decrease over-studying. "This kind of system lessens the sense of competition because you're not competing against yourself," Davidson said. "There is a rolling figure and there's no set figure that you must get to belong within the range."

The criteria for Dean's List will remain constant, being awarded to any student completing 12 or more graded points with at least a 3.4 GPA each semester for a year.