A LEJANDRO L ÓPEZ G ONZÁLEZ , Director General Adjunto
PROGRAMA DE VISITAS A REALIZAR EN EL ESTADO DE CHIHUAHUA FECHA DE VISITA:
A thesis library is not just a storage place for completed theses; it is a manifestation of the institutional recognition of the value and quality of honors thesis work. Honors theses exemplify the best and most advanced undergraduate work at the institution, and like master’s theses and doctoral dissertations, they should be acces- sible to the public and to other students. A thesis library or archive is an excellent resource for students searching for their own thesis topics and considering the amount and quality of work that a thesis will entail. Many students commit to doing a thesis only after read- ing several previous theses and recognizing that a thesis project is within their abilities. For this reason many honors programs and colleges require students to read earlier theses, often in their thesis preparation courses.
Some programs have established a thesis archive within the college or university library; others house it in the honors facility, and some departments house honors theses in their own office or lounge. While many honors programs and colleges still retain hard copies of honors theses, colleges and universities are increasingly
relying on digital media to archive theses. This step makes it easy for students, thesis advisors, and the general public to access com- pleted theses 24/7 from anywhere in the world with a computer or even a smart phone.
A “heads up” for honors directors and deans is necessary at this point. Just as contemporary marketing schemes offer honors students meaningless memberships in dubious “honor societies,” making a good profit from membership fees or by selling copies of a book containing the student’s listing, similar ploys are now targeting students who have completed an honors thesis. One international “publishing” company, operating under a variety of imprints and listing offices in Germany, Latvia, Moldova, and Mauritius, claims to be digitizing more than 50,000 dissertations and theses a month, downloading them from institutional websites. These companies offer authors a “free” printed copy of the thesis if they agree to sign
away their rights to the thesis. The companies make their profit
by charging more than $60 for each additional copy of the thesis bought for family and friends. As Joseph Stromberg points out in “I Sold my Undergraduate Thesis to a Print Content Farm” (2014), students are being offered print-on-demand services no better than those available at the local copy shop, where two or three similar copies of a thesis can be printed and bound for less than $20. Caveat
emptor.
Archiving completed theses should not be considered simply a formality or mechanical task, like placing athletic awards in a trophy case. Archiving undergraduate honors theses, like master’s theses and doctoral dissertations, testifies to their value at the institution and to others outside it. A thesis library or archive of completed honors theses also plays a significant role in the way that the thesis is perceived by students working on their project. Because honors theses are archived after completion, students have clear evidence that this research is considered more significant than class activi- ties or research papers completed in normal courses: finished then easily forgotten or thrown away. Knowing that all honors theses are archived, students recognize that their own thesis is likely to be avail- able well beyond their Facebook postings or Instagram pictures. To
put it simply, because their honors thesis will be easily available to their fellow students, to faculty, and to the general public, students need to take thesis work seriously. Just as cover letters display a student’s writing abilities, an honors thesis provides valuable evi- dence about a student’s academic preparation, intellectual abilities, capacity for effectively organizing work, and willingness to take on independent tasks. Potential employers can look over a student’s honors thesis just as easily as they now examine his or her Face- book pages.
The existence of a thesis library also has a positive impact on faculty thesis advisors and their commitment to helping students do the best possible work. Because the faculty advisor’s name appears on the finished thesis, the thesis reflects the faculty mem- ber’s judgment and mentoring abilities as well as the student’s work. Faculty advisors know that they too will be judged on the quality of the thesis their student produces, and they have strong motiva- tion to ensure that any thesis they direct and approve reflects well on them, especially in the eyes of their departmental colleagues. Consequently, they are likely to maintain high standards that are consistent with those of other faculty and to work hard to bring their thesis students up to this level.
Honors directors and deans usually take honors approval of a thesis seriously because it reflects the standards, consistency, and even the fairness of their honors program or college. A few cases of inadequate thesis work can tarnish the perception of and the quality of both honors work and undergraduate work in general at the institution. It confuses students about what will be expected of them, exposes inconsistencies in faculty standards, and implies poor management and oversight in the honors program. In the early stages of thesis work, students and faculty advisors frequently look at previous theses, and students quickly pick up on inconsis- tent standards and the acceptance of inadequate work by others. “Why should I have to write a 50-page thesis when three years ago Terry had a 15-page thesis accepted?” “Why should I have to do so much rewriting when Joe didn’t even proofread his thesis?” “Why do I have to include so much documentation when Stacy got away
with just six references—and two of them were from Wikipedia?!” Obviously, the best way to avoid these problems is to make sure that all theses meet honors program standards.
Thus, a thesis library reinforces the importance of maintaining quality in thesis work. The archiving of theses provides an honors program or college with a compelling rationale for insisting that every thesis must meet minimum standards of quality and must fulfill other honors requirements, including reflective statements, common thesis format, and appropriate documentation. Honors theses need to maintain high standards because students are pre- senting these theses as examples of their independent academic achievement, approved by a faculty advisor and the honors pro- gram, and implicitly reflecting the best undergraduate work at the institution. At most colleges and universities, the honors director or dean is the person ultimately responsible for ensuring that all theses meet honors standards. In effect, honors program approval of the thesis confers an institutional imprimatur on the thesis, and the public archiving of honors theses reflects this process and illus- trates the honors status of the thesis.