UNIVERSITY DAILY KANSAN
Friday, March 15, 1968
Baker U adopts pass-fail, new course plan
Baker University has adopted a pass-fail grading system.
The system, which will go into effect this fall, consists of honors, high pass, pass and fail. It will replace the current system of letter grades. Grade points will not be retained in the new system.
Benjamin A. Gessner, dean of the college, said one of the many goals of the faculty is "to place more emphasis on scholarship and less emphasis on grade-getting."
"Iherent motivation is found in the progress the student makes rather than in comparative and competitive lists."
The old system penalized the student for grades of "F" by subtracting grade points earned in other courses and by giving no hours of credit for the failures. The new system does not subtract qualitative credit already earned, but requires course credit as a requisite for a degree.
The grade of "honors" is given for excellent assigned work plus the completion of high quality independent study in a course.
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"The Baker Plan," a series of courses designed and copyrighted exclusively for Baker University, will be implemented there next fall.
Food, gifts will be sold at Festival
Artifacts and souvenir items from foreign countries are being collected for the Food and Gift Bazaar at the KU International Festival, March 31, on the second floor of the Kansas Union.
The bazaar, sponsored by the KU chapter of the World University Service (WUS), will offer the donated items for sale to anyone attending the Festival.
Profits will go for lodging, health and educational facilities for needy students overseas.
Students and faculty members who wish to contribute items should call Elizabeth Boyd, president of WUS, at VI 2-6301. Items will be picked up the week of the Festival.
So far, KU faculty members have donated Chinese pottery, silver jewelry from Turkey, Indian leaf paintings, lacquered boxes from Japan, folk pottery from the U.S., Kuwaitian wall hangings—and someone is knitting German "egg-warmers."
Included in the curriculum change are new core courses titled "Man's Search for Meaning." The core which constitutes one course unit each semester for three years of a student's college career, is planned as a liberal education in itself.
The uniqueness of the new program is characterized by the use of the "tutorial" method, used by Oxford and Cambridge Universities in England.
The Baker University faculty also recently adopted a new academic calendar called a 4-1-4 or 16-4-16. This terminology refers to a new school year consisting of two semesters of 16 weeks each
interspersed with an interterm of four weeks. Summer school will remain in three sessions of four weeks each.
A student may accelerate and be graduated in three school years plus summer schools.
program are that the student will average three to four courses per semester instead of five or six. "The result should be an opportunity to study in depth. The equivalency value of a full course is four semester hours, al though the concept of semester hour is not part of the Baker Plan," he said.
Benjamin A. Gessner, dean of the college, said some of the advantages of the new academic
really started something last year. They introduced a new variation on their traditional Post-Grad slacks...bold Glen Plaids. And now they're already a legend in their own time. Press-Free. Wrinkle-free. $8 to $9.
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