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The GW Hatchet

AN INDEPENDENT STUDENT NEWSPAPER SERVING THE GW COMMUNITY SINCE 1904

The GW Hatchet

Serving the GW Community since 1904

The GW Hatchet

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Officials name senior vice president, chief of staff
By Fiona Riley, Assistant News Editor • March 26, 2024

Editorial: Better criteria

If seniors were to list the most important qualities of a student graduation speaker, it is questionable whether a student’s grade point average would be high on it. Despite this, two of the University’s schools – the Elliott School of International Affairs and Columbian College of Arts and Sciences – use GPA as one of the most important criteria in selecting graduation speakers.

While GPA should be taken into account when selecting student speakers, oftentimes one’s grades rarely translate into speaking prowess or an inspirational message. Instead, schools should search out students with good grades who have made a significant impact on the GW community, or who have used the resources available to them through the University to make a difference in the larger D.C. community.

Setting a high GPA threshold limits the number of potential qualified speakers. One of GW’s major draws comes from the fact that it encourages its students to take advantage of internships, study abroad programs and other opportunities to maximize one’s education. Since participating in such options can result in a lower GPA, these schools are drastically reducing their pool of qualified and inspirational speakers.

GPA should be included in a broader list of criteria used in selecting student graduation speakers. However, it should not be the most important. While the Elliott School has reduced its requirement to a 3.4 – the same benchmark used for students accepted into the University Honors Program – the Columbian College has not. The Columbian School should follow its counterparts and lower its benchmark to the Honors Program requirement to allow for a larger and more diverse pool of talented speakers.

The Hatchet is in no way is slighting this year’s graduation speakers. It is simply saying that the University should not prevent good students that have made significant contributions to the student body to speak at graduation ceremonies simply because they may not have achieved a 3.9 GPA.

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