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UNIVERSITY DAILY KANSAN
Thursday, March 7, 1968
CIB proposes pass-fail grades for the College
By Jean Hershey Kansan Staff Reporter
Kansan Staff Reporter
The College Intermediary Board (CIB) is proposing a complete pass-fail system for the College of Liberal Arts and Sciences.
Computer classes will begin soon
David McClain, St. Joseph,
Mo., senior and CIB chairman,
said the proposal was made because grades are used in relation
Short courses in computer programming will begin soon in Summerfield Hall and Robinson Gymnasium, according to Steve Callahan, instructor at the computations center.
Three different types of programming will be taught: Fortran IV, Cobol and Algol.
The courses are free to anyone in the University. They are non-
credit and include practical machine experience.
Two sections of Fortran IV will be taught. One will be at 3:30 p.m. Monday, Wednesday and Friday, March 20 to April 29, in 302 Summerfield. The other section will be given at 7:00 p.m. Monday and Thursday, March 18 to April 25, in 301 Summerfield.
Cobol will be taught at 3:30 p.m. Monday, Wednesday and Friday, March 18 to May 3, in 122 Robinson.
Alogl will meet at 3:30 p.m. Tuesday and Thursday, March 2 to May 2, in 302 Summerfield.
to too many social activities, such as determining whether to accept a person into a sorority or fraternity.
Because of this, McClain said, the student is more interested in the grade he makes in a course than in what he learns.
The CIB proposal calls for all undergraduate grades to be based on a pass-fail system. Juniors and seniors would receive only a passing or failing grade. Freshmen and sophomores would receive grades of A, B, C, D or F for counseling purposes, but these grades would be given only to the student and his adviser. The KU registrar would translate the mark into a pass or fail grade for the student's transcript.
McClain said grades of A, B or C would be considered as passing; grades of D and F as failing.
He said a D would not be considered as passing because some
professors give D's when theo grades should be F's simply because they are "too chicken" to flunk the student.
Also, McClain said, under the present system the student needs 124 credit hours with at least a C average to graduate. The new system would still require the equivalent of a C average to graduate. If D were included as passing, the student could graduate with a D average, McClain said.
The CIB chairman said there are two reasons freshmen and sophomores should receive both a letter grade and a pass-fail grade.
First, the freshman or sophomore needs some form of evaluation to help determine the area he is most suited to go into, he said. Letter grades form the best evaluation for this.
Second, the freshman coming
t of a high school system is strongly oriented to letter grades. Using both letter grades and pass-fail grades would help him make the transition from the high school system to the college system, he said.
"It isn't too important if a junior or senior makes low grade in art history 40," McClain said, "but if a freshman or sophomore does poorly in art history it indicates he should not choose this area for a major."
Spring Fling planned for April 21-28
McClain said the proposed system is not designed to cut down on the student's work. Professors would still require tests and papers.
"But the new system would focus on the learning involved in these activities," McClain said, "not the grade."
The full text of the proposal will appear in the University Review next week.
With the warm weather comes Spring Fling, KU's annual spring residence hall activities. This year Spring Fling will be the week of April 21-28.
The schedule has been announced by Jann Wittmeyer, Ottawa sophomore and chairman of the Spring Fling committee.
The week will start with the annual Spring Sing, sponsored by Inter-residence Council, April 21. The sing has previously been held at the end of the Spring Fling, which is sponsored by the Association of University Residence Halls.
A parade down Jayhawk Boulevard will take place April 26. There will be a dance that night. The location of the dance has not yet been decided.
Two sports car events, a rally and a gymkhana, will be held April 27, followed by a picnic on Daisy Hill and dessert at Potter Lake.
The gymkhana will be a joint event with Greek Week and competition will be open to any KU student or staff member.
The last Spring Fling event will be a banquet April 28.
KU history profs get travel grants
Two members of the KU East Asian studies faculty have received travel grants from the American Council of Learned Societies to attend the International Conference on Asian History next summer.
They are Grant K. Goodman, professor of history, and Edgar B. Wickberg, associate professor of history and co-chairman of the East Asian studies program.
Both will present papers during the Aug. 5-10 conference in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia.
MOM... I'm Going To The Library