Your Feb. 25 editorial on the
"example" of the English Department
loses its force as accurate
summary and as persuasion by
succumbing to an oligarchical
theory of university history. Your
stress on the "personal factor" and
"small groups of influential and
tenured personnel" misrepresents
both the nature of the department's
decision and the flexibility of the
Undergraduate Chairman. We decided
to make comprehensives
optional, not because the Undergraduate
Chairman's absence
cleared the way for a vote, but
because there has been a genuine
change in the department's judgment
about the effectiveness of the
examinations. The reason "there
was never even a majority vote in
favor of doing away with them" in
the past is simply that there was no
vote at all; until the College Faculty
voted to eliminate the uniform
requirement for comprehensive
examinations, the issue could not
even arise in the individual departments.
Gary H. Lindberg
Department of English
