Murdock Favors Exam 'Experiments'

The introduction of a long essay as an alternate to the final examination for honors students in Social Sciences 4 may be the beginning of a major liberalization in examination policy, several members of the Faculty indicated yesterday.

Kenneth B. Murdock '16, Chairman of the Committee on General Education, commented, "I am much in favor of this kind of experimentation...I think this is a step in the right direction." Other members of the committee tended to concur with Murdock's judgment.

The change in Soc Sci 4 "indicates that there is some experimentation, and this is a good thing...The biggest vice of the present system is that it has tended to be too rigid," according to Carl Kaysen, member of the Committee and the CEP.

Many professors said they felt that it would be definitely beneficial to have more courses introduce a substitute for finals. Morton G. White, professor of Philosophy--although himself an advocate of finals--favored the experimentation because "a professor will feel more confident about asking not to have finals in his course if there is no precedent for them." Most of those contacted said they felt strongly that the course itself rather than any binding rule should decide whether a final is given.

Murdock was emphatic on the point of individual decision. There is tremendous emphasis on finals at the present, he points out, but this is no more a reason for abolishing finals in courses which need them than retaining them in courses which would be better with papers. No outsider can say what an individual course may need, he added.

Mark DeWolfe Howe '28, professor of Law, suggested that Soc Sci 4's change might be a good precedent for many courses. "I think it is generally better to have a paper than an exam," he said, adding that this would, of course, depend on the particular problems of the course.

It seems likely, however, that any experimentation with final examinations will not bring any immediate change in the formal examination setup. Clyde K. Kluckhohn, professor of Anthropology, who lectures in Social Science 4, has put the change in experimental terms.

Several members of the Committee on General Education have predicted, however, that the present policy on finals may not be retained if the tendency of the changes continues. Noting that Professors Brower, Guerard, and Riesman teach courses without finals, one member of the Committee put his view of the situation this way, "If one professor, and then one more, and one more is allowed to do it, sooner or later the whole program will have to be re-examined."