Monday, February 7, 1977
University Daily Kansan
3
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minister Ian block, we a leading out of theathered on
could be and more actions.
the news issue for the city."
mation
the beginning of the semester hardly seems the time to think about finals, but a week ago we were talking
Finals week problems studied
Commissioned by the Student Senate Calendar Committee and the Academic Policy and Procedure Committee of the University Council, the subcommittee has been studying finals week problems and possible solutions.
"It's a subcommittee to study the use and abuse of finals week." Don Marquis, associate professor of philosophy, said recently.
**WE WANT TO institute an exam-free period, last seven days before finals**, *Michigan State University*.
If the subcommittee's proposal is approved by both committees and the council, University of Kansas students will enjoy the first week before final start, possibly next fall.
This would mean that for this semester no tests would be given in classes May 4-10 before final begin. However, the proposal, which was presented earlier, effect earlier than next fall, Marquis said.
"The effect of this will be two-fold. First, that's the real pressure week for students and not giving exams that week would have been much less pressure." "Secondly, faculty who want to give exams during that week will have to put them off and give them during finals week, which would make those who complain about rooms during finals week very bumpy."
Under KU's current policy the schools individually decide whether faculty can give last week tests in classes where a final is required.
THE MOST serious problem is that the semester is supposed to run from Jan. 24 to May. 20, as established by the Board of Regents," he said. "If you faculty, 'Well, I do they're doing is cutting the semester short by a week and a half."
The University changed to a week and a half of fall in the final 1967 semester to give students more time to study and to give an additional hour for each exam period.
DESPITE THE SWICH, students still complain, according to Cathy Gorton, subcommittee chair, that they were speed during the last week of classes, at the end of final weeks or sometime in between, she said, although the Calendar Committee tries to spread them evenly.
This semester, student should be helped to "stop day" students, when no classes begin.
But Marquis said the "stop" day wasn't enough.
The proposed solution of a dead week isn't new. The Calendar Committee did an extensive study on finals in Spring 1873, but the same somehow disappeared, Marquis said.
"Because some faculty give finals during the last week of classes, students have a rough week—tougher than they should have," he said.
IN THE STUDY, both faculty and students in the Senate received question-aires, but less than half of both responded. The current three-exams-a-day schedule was based on the time available. Students preferred two-hour exams and faculty preferred three-hour exams.
Half of the faculty they always gave final exams in undergraduate courses and about 16 per cent said they either usually had to take them or two per cent said they never gave them.
Carlos Alberto Vasquez, Paraguayan classical guitarist, will perform at 8 o'clock in the Forum Room of the Kansas Union in a concert sponsored by the Kansas-Paraguay Committee, the Center for Latin American music education.
Guitar music by Vasquez at KU today
From 7 to 10 per cent of the faculty said
Vasques' concert program will include
musical music and Latin American folk
music.
Vasquez is a protege of Sila Godoy, Paraguayan classical guitarist, who toured Kansas in 1975, also under the sponsorship of the Kansas-Paraguay committee. The highlight of Vasquez' Kansas tour will be a concert with Godoy in Wichita later this month. Godoy is in the United States recording.
Vasquez, born in Paraguay in 1946, began playing guitar when he was 12. He now dedicates most of his time to music, practicing six to eight hours a day, even though he earns his living as a lawyer, specializing in civil law.
Vasquez will perform informally at Lawrence High School Wednesday and visit the Wednesday night jam session at Off-the-Wall Hall.
"Music is my vocation, but it's difficult to survive as a musician in my country," he said. "Because Paraguay is a small and developing country, it has been regarded as one of the United States."
we're at a stage that we can't think about art. I would like to live in the United States, to develop my art. There's a market for arry kind of music here."
Vasquez' tour of Kansas began with performances in Colby, Oberlin, Oakley, Hoxie and Goodland, sponsored by the Northwestern Plains Art Council. Hay Lawrence, Vasquez, Vasquez, Hay Lawrence, McPherson and Wichita, with performances scheduled at Kansas State University and the governor's mansion.
they gave exams in the last week or two of class but gave no final. Another 17 to 19 per cent said they gave exams both in the last week or two of class and during final week.
Gorton said this study and other data were reviewed by the subcommittee to decide on basic scheduling problems of the final period.
THE PROBLEM is hard to define, but we haven't got a better alternative to the one we know.
Marquis agreed. "One of the most difficult things was to find a course of action," he said. "I will be here."
"The problem is that people in this place do different views on what a good education can do."
feedback for it. I think we will first approach the dearness and then float it up before
Gorton said she thought it was important to get students' opinions because most department heads seemed satisfied with the system.
"As for students, there's really no way to satisfy everyone," she said.
Only 65 days are left until finals, and the groans are already being heard.
Snake found, locked in Fraser
Lawrence voters will decide in the April 15 general election whether they want to change from the current city manager—a mayor of a city government to a mayor-council form.
A petition containing 3,264 valid signatures was submitted to the county clerk's office Friday saying the current system should be changed. Only 2,960 signatures were needed to put the question on the April 5 ballot, the office said.
A 5-foot, 60-pound boa constrictor that had been missing from Fraser Hall since Wednesday afternoon has been located but not captured.
However, the student said that there never was any threat of danger, and that the snake was part of a traditional psychology experiment.
City rule change on ballot
The main item on the April 5 ballot will be candidates for three city commissioner posts. If the mayor-council form passes, the newly elected commissioners must step down before their terms are over. Frank Braschi was a member of the League of Municipalities, said Friday.
the day after the next general election, which would be in April 1979.
have to campaign for council positions from their respective wards. Bean said.
This means that the two newly elected commissioners who receive the highest number of votes would serve two years, the other four would serve one commissioner, the one who receives the least number of votes of the three, would serve a full term of two years. The two other commissioners, already elected, would serve out their full terms by April 1979.
The snake apparently escaped from its third-floor cage in Fraser Hall, where it was used in a psychology experiment. The snake was not captured when the water was found wedged beneath a cabinet.
The student said the cabinet would have to be dismantled to remove the snake.
Bean said the statue was sketched and could be interrupted several ways.
If the commissioners wished to be elected to the newly formed council, they would
Bean said that as he understood Kansas Statute KSA12-1019, Abandonment of the Commission Form of Government, the mayor-council form, if passed, would start
"Everything is safe now," a psychology student who asked not to be identified said. "The room where the snake was found has people who can't get to the snake, people and people can't get to the snake."
Mercer said she didn't think the council form would begin immediately because an accountant for the county and each council member elected from his own ward. The city commissioners aren't
If the mayor-council form is passed, the city manager would be replaced by a full-time mayor elected at large and the five council members appointed unanimously elected from at least four wards.
Lawrence Wrightsman, chairman of the psychology department, had requested all psychology personnel to remain silent concerning the disappearance of the snake. The student said Wrightsman didn't want newspaper stories about the snake that released such questions would create unnecessary problems with students and faculty using the building.
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