University of Virginia Library

Spring Reading Days

The recently passed faculty motion to
extend reading days from two to five days is
an excellent idea and a long over-due one. It
seems, however, the "catch" to the proposal is
that it does not go into effect until the
1967-70 session. We do not see why it cannot
be instituted for the spring semester.

The extension of reading days does not
lengthen or shorten the University calendar or
extend the examination period. Reading days
were extended by cutting back the number of
classes. Each department establishes its own
policy on the number of reading days it will
allow with a limit of five days. The concept of
a reading day is excellent: no tests are given,
paper assignments must be handed in before
the reading days begin, the instructor is
available for consultation, and the student has
time for independent work. Perhaps in some
cases, an instructor will assign new material
for a course which the student will be
responsible for only on the examination. This
would prevent simple regurgitation of information
on examinations. In this situation,
none of the regularly assigned class material
would be assigned for the final test. Perhaps
even more than five days would be advantageous
in this situation.

The faculty recognizes that the old system
of two reading days was ridiculously short and
meaningless. So why not begin the five-day
system next semester? As Peter L. Heath,
chairman of the philosophy department,
pointed out in a recent University Forum
discussion on curriculum evaluation, the
number of classes a teacher must instruct is
more than necessary to distribute "knowledge"
to a class. The situation is analogous
(on a small scale) to Tuesday and Thursday
classes: most instructors do not lecture the
full class time because they find the one hour,
fifteen minutes class period either too long for
a lecture or instructors discover they cannot
hold students' attention for more than an
hour.

It's ludicrous for the faculty to recognize
the many good arguments for extending the
reading days, then wait to institute the ruling.
It's similar to hanging a man after a law has
been passed to abolish capital punishment,
because the law has not been put into effect
yet. Why deprive fourth-year men of a good,
sound program?

There will be many curriculum changes in
the University next year as a result of the
study committees in all the departments of
the College. There has been an excellent
response on the part of the faculty to establish
communication links with the students
to determine where changes should be made.
The last faculty meeting even saw a committee
appointed to study the feasibility of
associating students with various faculty committees
- a move which came with little
pressure from the student body. We strongly
urge the faculty to reconsider at its February
meeting and vote to institute the extension of
reading days, effective next semester.

C.L.W.