By 2010, MSU students will need a 3.65 grade-point average to graduate with honor and a 3.86 to graduate with high honor.

This is because of gradually increasing GPA threshold requirements that will begin in spring 2008.

The university wants to keep the amount of those honored at around 20 percent of that year's class, so instead of getting to the root of the problem and eliminating grade inflation, MSU will undercut many students' chances of graduating with honor.

Right now, more than 20 percent of students are graduating with honor or high honor, and MSU officials did not say whether it was a result of grade inflation or better students.

At a school where introductory writing classes and physical education classes are weighted the same as 400-level chemical engineering classes, awarding students with high GPAs disproportionately rewards those taking an easy path and puts even greater pressure on students in difficult classes or demanding majors.

Unfortunately, many students planning on graduating with honor this spring may not be able to, after years of expecting and working toward such an opportunity.

This change may entice students to work harder in every class to make the new bottom line, but students will more likely just recognize the benefits of earning a 4.0 in an easy class to make the grade.

The university needs to cut to the core of the problem and address grade inflation and watered-down curriculums. Students pay far too much money for school to take easy classes that never really challenge them, expand their minds or teach them useful information.

The university should use the thousands of dollars each student pays every year to reduce class size and to pay professors to update and enliven curriculums. Students should have the resources available to learn about classes, through hands-on activities, state-of-the-art lab and research equipment, field trips and quality instructors. Professors need to have the resources to both teach and pursue research effectively, without having to choose to shine at one or the other.

Augmenting GPA requirements is an easy fix to a deep-rooted problem. It makes MSU look better on the surface - if the number of students graduating with honors is consistently increasing, the public will conclude that school might be too easy in East Lansing.

Graduates should be proud of an MSU diploma, and that pride should stem from a memory of the hard work they put into receiving the degree and a broad base of knowledge they will carry through the rest of their lives from classes and labs.

And if a student graduates with honor, it should be because that student rose above the rest and succeeded in difficult and advanced-level classes.

MSU needs to stop rewarding the lazy and start recognizing the true honor students.