University of Virginia Library

Government Faculty
Ends Comprehensives,
Investigates Substitute

By Donn Kessler
Cavalier Daily Staff Writer

The faculty of the Department of
Government and Foreign Affairs, in a
meeting held yesterday in Cabell Hall,
abolished comprehensive examinations
for all department majors, effective
immediately.

David Jordan, the chairman of the
Government Department, stated however,
that a department committee had been
assigned to looking into a substitute for
the comprehensives.

In leaving the meeting, Mr. Jordan
stated that "student opinion had been
considered highly along with comments by
faculty members in the making of the
decision."

Mr. Jordan stated that the comprehensives
had been abolished basically because
"Increasing specialization in the field had
lessened the effectiveness of comprehensives in
attaining their purpose."

Students Present Report

Two students had attended the meeting
briefly to present a report from the
Undergraduate Student Committee, a
committee made up of five undergraduate
majors.

The two students, Nate Manns and Steve
Maddox, were not allowed to stay for the vote
of the faculty.

In the report, the students objected to
comprehensive examinations on three grounds.

The first objection dealt with the failure of
comprehensives to help synthesize a student's
work. "The Department...with its formal
division into four aspects of political science
and its requirements therein does seek to tie the
discipline together under comprehensive
examinations. These examinations as presently
structured do not accomplish this goal of
synthesization."

The second student objection was that the
examinations were unfair to the students. The
committee stated that "Majors with very
dissimilar academic programs, must compete on
one examination in order to graduate."

The final objection was that the
examination placed an undue burden on the
student since it forced the student "to divert
his attention from his courses."

Recommend Reforms

The student had recommended in their
report that "the comprehensive examination
should not be given and the student's
graduation should rest on his four years
performance in the liberal education and his
two years as a Departmental major."

The students also recommended that
reforms be added to the department to improve
the academic experience. The students
recommended that either a course to help
synthesize their studies in political science
should be offered or that a senior thesis, senior
seminar or research assistantship be offered.

Under the last proposal, students would
"work with a faculty member on the
instructor's research. This would be a valuable
aid to the instructor and an equally valid
learning experience for the student in a
particular area."

The students had first presented their report
to the Government Department's Committee
on Comprehensives. This joint student-faculty
committee, according to Mr. Manns, greeted the
report with some "reception" and requested
the students to present the report to the whole
department faculty.