University of Virginia Library

Faculty Schedules Special Meeting
To Discuss Problems Of Expansion

By Philip Kimball
Cavalier Daily Staff Writer

Acting on a plea by Kevin Mannix,
Student Council president and member of
the Committee on Admissions Policy, the
College Faculty yesterday voted to
schedule a special meeting within the
next three weeks to deal solely with the
problems of University Expansion.

Mr. Mannix urged the faculty to deal
"responsibly" with the issues of Growth
and how they affect the quality of
education at the University. "The issue of
Growth has reached a peak. You cannot
put it off any longer," stated Mr. Mannix.

The issue of Growth was focused on
when the faculty was asked by its
committee on Admissions Policy to
recommend to the President of the
University "that entrance standards be
adjusted so as to regulate the size of the
entering class at approximately the
present level until more adequate
housing, teaching, and library facilities
become available."

In proposing the recommendation
James Dent, chairman of the Admissions
Policy Committee and a professor in the
Biology Department, stated "I feel our
classrooms are overcrowded despite the fact
that more classes than before have less than ten
students."

This was said in response to an earlier
presentation by David Shannon, Dean of the
Faculty of the College of Arts and Sciences and
newly appointed Provost of the University,
which showed that 81 courses with an
enrollment of less than 10 students had been
offered in the College while only 49 courses had
enrollments of over 100 students.

Eugene C. Paige of the Mathematics
Department also told faculty members that
with the present teaching facilities the
University will be able to support 18,000
students or the projected 1980 enrollment,
according to state standards.

Mr. Paige, who will head the Office of
Institutional Analysis next year, stated that the
Charlottesville branch of the University of
Virginia had "the lowest utilization of
classroom space of any educational institution
in the state."

Mr. Paige continued to say that "it is hard to
justify new teaching space unless we are able to
utilize present space now."

When asked about the continued increase in
the size of the entering first year class, Ernest
H. Ern, Dean of Admissions, stated "It is our
feeling that the quality of the student here has
not declined. Over the last four years we have
maintained that students in the entering class
have come from the top decile of their high
school class."

He also stated that the emphasis placed on
the Scholastic Aptitude Tests was unjustified
and that they are only one of many factors
used by the Admissions Office to judge
perspective candidates.

Several motions were made to postpone
discussion on the recommendation of the
Admissions Policy Committee and on the issue
of Growth in general until either the May or
October meeting of the Faculty.

After Mr. Mannix's plea for dealing with the
growth issue now, Arthur I. Schulman of the
Psychology Department called for the special
meeting. "I feel that the problem calls for such
a drastic motion," he said.

In other business, the faculty voted on a
motion presented by Robert Morgan of the
Government Department dealing with how an
"F" in a pass/fail course is to be recorded on a
student's record.

Presently, if a student fails a course he is
taking on a pass-fall basis, he will receive an
audit on his record. The faculty voted
yesterday to record this type of grade as "NC."
This change will distinguish a course that has
been audited from a pass/fail course that has
been failed.

The faculty also approved a motion for a
self-paced introductory physics course. The
course will not be taught by undergraduate
tutors as originally proposed, but by graduate
students and faculty.