Editor’s note: This story appeared in truncated form in the Barometer’s June 2024 print issue.
In 1772, Lord Botetourt, an English transplant to the American colony of Virginia, announced to the student body at the College of William and Mary that he would award a gold medal to the student most skilled in Latin written composition and oratory.
This student, in addition to receiving the gold medal, would also be called the valedictorian. The word is an anglicized version of the Latin word valedicere, which means “to say farewell,” as they would also give the farewell address at commencement.
Although the valedictorian title is awarded to the highest-performing graduating student in an academic institution, Oregon State University will not be recognizing any valedictorians at commencement this year.
“OSU recognizes academic distinction through GPA honors including cum laude, magna cum laude and summa cum laude,” Kayleen Eng, director of commencement, said.
These Latin honors are traditionally newer than the valedictorian system, dating back to 1869, at Harvard College. Other iterations of them existed at other European universities, with slightly different criteria and titles.
According to Eng, OSU has always chosen to recognize academic distinction in this way.
There can only be one valedictorian, but there can be many students that receive latin honors – which is partially why many larger universities have elected to use the latin honor system.
The average American high school graduating class was about 510 students in 2024, according to the Public School Review; while the average state college has a range of 5,000 to 15,000 students, according to the College Board.
Choosing one excellent student out of a few hundred to serve as a valedictorian is oftentimes easier than comparing thousands of students in different colleges and departments.
In addition to this, college education tends to be more focused on experiential learning; internships, research, fellowships than coursework exclusively. Which is another reason some colleges have decided to get rid of the valedictorian award, according to Transfer Goat.
The lack of a valedictorian’s address at commencement comes with a mixed bag of responses from OSU graduates.
“I would say that having a valedictorian is good as it encourages students to strive for excellence,” said Kristin Felsch, a graduating biochemistry and molecular biology major. “However, it also adds unnecessary rivalry and competition to the education setting.”
Eng said there has been no pushback on the lack of valedictorians at commencement.
Instead of a valedictorian’s speech, the OSU commencement exercises will include speeches from President Jayathi Murthy, a number of alumni including Steven Jackson, a philanthropist and NFL running back, as well as Carissa O’Donnell, the ASOSU president.
For smaller, oftentimes private colleges, the valedictorian award has a meaningful tradition. However, at larger schools with a diverse amount of programs, like OSU, choosing one student who stands out academically is near-to impossible.
This decision becomes even more difficult when questions of race, gender, and socioeconomic equity come into play.
In 2021, West Point High School in West Point, Mississippi came under scrutiny for their choice to break their tradition and award co-valedictorian and co-salutatorian honors to two white students after two Black students won the valedictorian and salutatorian awards.
The discrepancy was over a miscalculation in grades, using the unweighted and weighted GPA scores, but highlighted important issues in the choice for valedictorian, according to a New York Times article published that year.
While in high school, the valedictorian status can be a make-it-or-break-it on college applications, the college valedictorian status is a little different, and many employers recognize latin honors with just as much distinction.
For this story, Commencement Director Kayleen Eng was the only university official the Barometer was allowed to interview. We are publishing this note in keeping with The Daily Barometer’s transparency policy.
