The Problem of the Wager

Under the current Rules for College Studies, students enrolled in tutorial for credit can take a fifth course at no extra charge. The rule gives the student much-needed flexibility in planning his course of study for a coming term; unsure of whether he can handle a five-course load, he can enroll in an extra course knowing that dropping it will entail only the payment of a nominal fine.

The Faculty recently "reinterpreted" the rule, arguing that the regulation has been abused by undergraduates using the fifth course as a "wild card" to hedge against the possibility of a bad grade in another course. Beginning next fall, a student will be financially responsible for a course up to the date of dropping it at the rate of $20 per week--in addition to the customary fine.

In the future a student will be exempt from paying tuition for the fifth course only when his tutorial credits "are in excess of the 16.5 courses required for the degree." What this means, paradoxically, is that the student enrolled in tutorial will not be charged for taking a fifth course--only for dropping it.

The administration's justification of the new ruling is two-pronged: the "wild card" use of the fifth course is not "respectable," and it engenders administrative complexities regarding proper tuition charges. We sympathize with the first argument; but it is important to remember, that, whatever the abuses, the old rule gives an appreciable number of students an opportunity to diversify their education or deepen their knowledge of their specific field. Moreover, even among those who have dropped their fifth course late in the term, there have surely been many who have enrolled in perfectly good faith, and only late in the term--when most undergraduates inevitably do the bulk of their course work--have realized their inability to complete its requirements.

As to the matter of administrative convenience, it would seem that the new system of sliding assessments--wherein tuition charges would vary from week to week as the term progressed--would be little less cumbersome than the old.

One solution to the two-fold problem might be to increase the fine for dropping a fifth course--to, let us say, $50. This might well discourage the speculative use of fifth courses as "wild cards," without frightening off those who would genuinely benefit from a fifth course but who do not care to wager as much as $230 on their ability to complete it.