University of Virginia Library

Comps Made Optional
In History Department

By Bill Fryer
Cavalier Daily Staff Writer

Comprehensive examinations have
been made optional in the Department of
History for fourth-year majors.

In action taken in a large meeting of
the department's faculty last Friday
comprehensive examinations were
permanently dropped for all third-year
and future majors.

The action paralleled that of the
Department of English which abolished
the controversial and often unpopular
examinations two weeks ago.

An undergraduate committee within the
history department chaired by Alexander
Sedgwick has presented to the whole
department a series of proposals which call for
a "wholesale revision" of the undergraduate
history program.

The vote was described as "reasonably
decisive" by a member of the undergraduate
committee. An opportunity for those in the
department who wanted the examinations
retained to make them more meaningful is now
available. It is not now known whether such a
proposal will be offered to a plenary meeting of
the department for scrutiny.

Many departments in the College have
started to re-examine the value of
comprehensive examinations in past weeks. As
the result of the new curriculum, departments
within the College have been given the option
to either retain or abolish comprehensives.
Departments also could replace the major
comprehensives with a fourth-year essay if
desired.

The undergraduate committee of the history
department is composed of eight of its faculty
members. A series of proposals for a revision of
the department's honors program and on class
structure for undergraduate courses will be the
subject of discussion at another meeting of the
department this Friday.

The committee's recommendations aim at
making the honors program more flexible,
larger, and giving the participants a greater
choice of material to study. The structural
proposals are concerned with taking the
department's emphasis off lectures and onto
small seminars.