University of Virginia Library

College Faculty Begins Curriculum Talks

By Bill Fryer
Cavalier Daily Staff Writer

Jeff Kirsch Hands Out Copies Of Student Council ROTC Report To Members of Faculty

Curriculum Report Recommends Formation Of Committee To Study The Dropping Of Credit For ROTC Courses

In the first College Faculty meeting
open to representatives of the student
press, discussion began on the controversial
report of the Faculty Curriculum
Committee which will probably be "the
most important matter" considered by
the faculty this year, according to David
A. Shannon, Dean of the Faculty.

Also passed in the meeting was a
resolution calling for the revitalization of
the University Senate.

The resolution for the revitalization of
the University Senate was introduced by
David Flaherty of the History Department.
Mr. Flaherty noted the meager
history of activity of the University
Senate and recognized that the body was
"no longer functioning as a representative body
of the University Community."

Senate Has Potential

Mr. Flaherty noted that the Senate is
scarcely realizing its potential for generating
opinions and action on the many important
issues that face a growing university today. As
examples, he pointed to the lack of any
discussion or action by the Senate in the
consideration of coeducation or in the charges
made last spring that the University was a racist
institution.

In discussion over the motion to form a
committee to be appointed by the Dean of the
Faculty to study revitalization, Fredson Bowers
of the English Department was worried that the
language of the proposal would, by its very
wording, exclude Administrative figures from
the committee and the Senate. Mr. Flaherty
noted that it was not the intention of the
signers of the resolution to exclude members of
the Administration from the committee or
from the Senate.

Widely Representative

Mr. Flaherty also noted that he felt the
Senate should be representative of the University
Community - it should include faculty,
student, administrative and staff representation
- but that the study and decisions should be
left to the discretion of the committee.

The resolution passed by a sizable margin
after an amendment failed. Dean Shannon will
appoint the committee to study questions
raised by the proposal and to report back to the
faculty.

Discussion was opened on the report of the
Curriculum Committee with Chairman John
Moore of the Economics Department fielding
questions on the language or meaning of the
report.

Eight Pass-Fail Courses

The report now calls for eight pass-fail
electives with a maximum of two a semester;
the removal fro the Interim Report of one third
credit for pluses or minuses; the retention of
ROTC with 12 hours credit, but the recommendation
of a new committee to study the
dropping of degree credit for ROTC; the end of
a physical education requirement; a general
liberalization of requirements; and a standing
committee on curriculum to study possibilities
of further liberalization of the curriculum.

Discussion got only as far as the general
philosophy of the report. As Mr. Moore stated
for the Committee, the report only goes into
the basic revisions for the curriculum and is
only intended as the "first step in a process of
continuing curriculum development."

According to Mr. Moore, the purposes of the
Committee were to broaden student choice and
to preserve traditions of the liberal arts
education that were worth saving.

Mr. Moore further stated that although the
proposed curriculum is full of compromises, it
is still an important step into the future. After
some pro and con discussion on the general
merits of the philosophy of the report, the
faculty voted to adjourn until 4 p.m. next
Monday to take up more general discussion and
to get to specific parts of the report.

Open Meeting

In further action Paul Gaston of the History
Department announced an open meeting of his
Committee on Black Studies to report to
students and faculty on activities of the
committee and to hear discussion from the
University Community. The meeting will be
held at 7:45 p.m. this Thursday in Room 301
of Wilson Hall.

Dean Shannon announced that Ralph
Eisenberg, Associate Professor of Government
and Foreign Affairs, will serve as chairman of
the new Committee on the Presence of
Students at Faculty Meetings. Also appointed
were Bernard Mayo, Marvin Rosenbloom,
Arthur C. Kirsch, and Fred A. Diehl.

Elected to the University Senate from the
college faculty were William W. Abbot, R.
V. Coleman, Pierre Conner, Lawrence Cranberg,
Ray Frantz, John Israel, and R. Bruce Martin.