Fifteen  honors students along with their families and advisors filled the Alumni Center conference center on Saturday, April 30, 2011 for a celebration lunch recognizing those who completed a senior honors thesis in Political Science.  

Professor Andrei Markovits, who teaches the research course which provides the foundation for the papers, began the ceremony with a brief overview of the honors program and statistics about the students' work this year: 

  • 1,648 pages of scholarship
  • 3,345 bibliographical entries
  • 521 tables and graphs
  • 700 books and articles 

"There is a lot of quantity here, but above all there is wonderful quality," he said, adding that "writing an honors thesis is far and away the most impressive academic accomplishment that one can attain as a college student, bar none."  

Professor Markovits introduced each of the students, their advisor and spoke briefly about their research topic.  Click here for a complete listing of honors students and their research topics.  

To conclude the ceremony, students were thanked and congratulated, and offered these parting words, used by a former Dean of Rackham and Professor Mika Lavaque-Manty for similar occasions:  

                                   " We ain't what we oughta be, 

                                    We ain't what we wanna be,

                                    We ain't what we should be, 

                                    But thank God, we ain't what we were."