English concentrators opting to not write a thesis can still graduate with honors, the English department announced in late July.

The department's newest track allows concentrators to earn cumlaude status--though not magna or summa degrees--for getting honors-level grades in all the required courses and taking an extra seminar or small group course taught by a departmental faculty member in lieu of writing a thesis.

"I support the new option, since it gives students themselves more options," said Professor of English and Comparative Literature James Engell, who is the outgoing director of undergraduate education in the department.

Earlier this year, students in the concentration circulated a petition that proposed changes to the department. However, Engell said the petition was not a factor in the development of the new track as the change was approved before the petition was submitted.

"Probably the main reason why the majority of the faculty voted to make a change was dissatisfaction with the way that the theses had been turning out for a number of students that were receiving cums," said Marquand Professor of English Lawrence Buell, who is also a former director of undergraduate education in the English department and a member of the Educational Policy Committee (EPC)which approved the new track.

Bernbaum Professor of Literature Leo Damrosch, the department's chair, said the department supported the change because "the impression is that a lot of people write these who are not motivated to do so because they just want honors."

"It's not as productive for them as it might have been just taking courses," he said.

Other faculty and administrators agreed with Damrosch but added that elimination of the thesis requirement makes sense only if replaced with other "capstone experiences."

Buell said that although he had voted for the program, he still personally favored a mandatory thesis.

"As an educator I think that it's a very good design for undergraduate education for it to build to a culmination of some sort," he said.

Although some said they fear the change might draw a disproportionate number of students to the department or cause magna inflation, professors and administrators said they do not believe either will be a serious problem.

"I hope the possible trend toward non-thesis honors degrees will not be seen as devaluing the degree cumlaude in general studies," said incoming Dean of Undergraduate Education William Todd.

Todd said that if the shift to non-thesis honors is a trend he hopes it will move "very slowly" and said he does not anticipate other departments will be compelled to follow in suit in order to remain numerically competitive.

"I would be surprised if this has an impact on most of our humanities departments, which are smaller than English," Todd said.

Buell agreed noting Harvard departments are very autonomous.

"It wasn't part of the thinking of the department members near as I could tell that this was going to be a way of gaining a competitive edge," he said.

The first humanities department to abandon a thesis as mandatory for honors, the English department's decision followed a similar move by the economics department last year.

At other colleges, however, similar changes have not occurred. Princeton and Brown both required a thesis to graduate with honors in English; Cornell requires a 50-page essay Yale requires all seniors to write a 30 to 40 page work