Curriculum Changes Pondered by College
Thursday, Feb. 20, 1964 University Daily Kansan Page $
The Administrative Committee of the College of Liberal Arts and Sciences has identified curriculum changes, examination procedures, and grade-point emphasis as problem areas in the College.
Because of the large number of two and three hour courses offered, the student often finds it necessary to enroll in as many as six courses to have a full schedule, the report stated. This fragmentation results in scattering of the student's thinking, as well as requiring shifts in location, loss of time and "weariness of spirit," the committee said.
Three proposals deal directly with curriculum.
The relationship between the number of class hours and laboratories, and the system of credits does not allow the student enough time for outside study, said the report.
"We feel that every few years the College should re-examine what it is doing," Dean George R, Waggoner, chairman of the Administrative Committee. said.
The University policy is that for each credit hour a student is expected to spend three hours a week in outside preparation. Thus a student carrying 15 credit hours would be expected to spend 45 hours outside of class in preparation.
To deal effectively with those problems 10 changes have been proposed by the committee for consideration by the various College departments.
SINCE THE majority of these measures concern only the College of Liberal Arts and Sciences, the University Senate would not have to approve them. An exception would be changes in the final examination procedure which would effect the entire University.
ELIMINATING or expanding the credit in courses of less than three hours was suggested by the committee as a possible solution.
Most of these measures are presently under discussion in the departments, and they will probably be discussed at the College faculty meeting in March, Dean Waggoner said.
FEWER HOURS in the classroom was the proposed solution to this problem. A student carrying 15 hours would still be required to spend 45 hours in outside preparation, but his in class time would be cut down. A three credit hour class
Girls Transfer Library Stacks
Any girl brave enough to don jeans and sweatshirts to carry dusty books into the new levels of Watson library will receive a permit giving her access to the general stack area for the semester.
The girls are using their brains and brawn to straighten out the library's stack areas this week as a project sponsored by the Associated Women Students (AWS). The service committee, a sub-division of the AWS House of Representatives, is in charge of the project.
Jewelda Devore, Belleville sophmore and chairman of the service committee, said 385 women from all organized living groups have volunteered to help the library staff with the task of moving books from the old stack areas to the newly-completed areas.
Each woman who moves books for two hours will receive the permit.
The operation takes place on three or four different floors in the library, Mr. Nugent, head of the circulation department, said. He explained that a regular crew of 10 or 12 who work in the stacks are supervising the women in the work.
Some of the books have to be moved from temporary storage space in the basement and from other buildings on campus before the stack areas are straightened out, according to Nugent.
Dusting the books as they work, the women place the books in the new stack areas leaving enough "growth space" for volumes which could be added later; Nugent explained.
The volunteers have been working in two hour shifts: 1:30 to 3:30, 3:30 to 5:30, and 7 to 9 p.m. The project will end today.
would meet twice a week, and a five hour class three times a week. In addition, seminars, discussion groups, and laboratory activities should replace lecture hours in many courses, the report stated.
Four proposals suggested by the Administrative Committee are directed toward correcting examination procedures.
First, the committee stressed a need for comprehensive essay examinations, rather than objective types. "The objective type test places a premium on short-term memorization," the report stated.
THE AVERAGE student takes about 128 different examinations during his undergraduate years, not including "shotguns." This testing results in "fragmenting" the student's thoughts. It also results in putting pressure on a student's allocation of time.
The committee recommended that only a minimum number of examinations be given. In some courses this may mean having only a final examination, while in foreign languages and mathematics, more would be necessary. Reports could be substituted for exams.
To compensate for the over-crowded final exam period, provisions should be made for a period at the end of each semester for "reading and reflection" the report said.
FINAL WEEK examinations follow too closely upon the pressure-filled last week to allow any time for this purpose."
The committee suggested that three hour final examinations be allowed but that students not be required to take more than two exams in a day.
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