University of Virginia Library

Noah's Dilemma

A curriculum that "was set up after Noah
landed," according to Dean Irby B. Cauthen
Jr., is now under a thorough study for
revamping purposes. A committee of
seventeen members, including faculty, deans
and students, has subdivided into four
committees to study the many phases
attached to curriculum evaluation. The
committees include required courses; degree
program requirements; special programs (such
as the honors program), and a catch-all
committee to study a pass-fail system, an
accelerated program and graduate instructors.

In a meeting yesterday of the College
Committee which comprises the Dean of the
College, the Dean of the Faculty,
representatives from various departments and
elected student leaders, the evaluation
committee showed its outstanding willingness
to listen to students and get their reactions to
the proposed curriculum reforms.

The scope of such a curriculum change is
fantastic. It involves every phase of University
academic life. For example, the conversation
at yesterday's meeting covered topics from
the utility of comprehensive examinations to
cut policies of some language departments.

Students who expected opposition from
faculty members regarding the elimination of
comprehensive examinations were greeted
with the reply of "Why not," from Fredson T.
Bowers, dean of the faculty. Mr. Bowers was
in perfect agreement with the arguments
against the examinations. Students pointed
out that the exams do not substitute for final
exams and that many of the questions on the
comprehensive are the same as the exam in a
particular course. Members of the faculty
were also receptive to the idea of substituting
a senior thesis for comps. Dean Cauthen
commented that many students graduate from
the University without doing direct research
or having a seminar course. He suggested that
there is no reason why all professors can not
take on small groups of students when the
College has 3,500 students.

Pro-comp professors talked of instituting
the achievement section of the Graduate
Record Examination instead of a
department-administered test. In the free
atmosphere of the meeting, this idea was
opposed by the more humanities-oriented
students and professors, who thought the
Graduate Record would be useful, for
example, in biology, but not in their
departments.

Discussion also centered around
attendance regulations, "which were written
10 years ago when we had 2,000 people in the
College," Dean Cauthen said. Now the
University has some 59 classes with more than
70 people enrolled, so that attendance taking
has become a burden. One faculty member
readily admitted that attendance taking was
just as annoying to him as to students.
"Attendance taking is the most inequitable
thing in the world," Mr. Cauthen said, "and if
you are a responsible individual you can take
care of your own attendance."

Comparison with other universities was
also brought out at the meeting. Howard L.
Hamilton of the biology department told the
meeting about Princeton's system: first-year
grades are given but they do not count on the
student's permanent record. If the first-year
grades are higher than the student's
performance in the next three years, then the
grades are averaged into the student's
accumulate average. The best of many worlds.

The possibility of a "no major" major
where the student varies his subjects with
minor emphasis in one field was discussed
along with the possibility of earning a masters
degree in four years of college. The particular
problem of counseling majors at the
University also received attention. To the
surprise of some of the faculty members, we
think, students told how they had seen their
major advisor perhaps once in two years.

What impressed us most, however,
throughout all the discussion, was the
attention and deep interest the faculty paid
students' suggestions. We enthusiastically urge
all students (at Dean Cauthen's suggestion) to
write either Dean Cauthen or Dean Bowers
about their ideas on curriculum reform. From
here we do not have to have student
revolutions, as long as faculty members of the
stature at yesterday's meeting are willing and
anxious to listen. - CLW