Ban Urged on Reading Period Exams

The Committee on Undergraduate Education (CUE) agreed yesterday that the University should ban all exams during reading period, in the first of a package of proposals on academic regulations that CUE will present to the Faculty Council this spring.

At a two-hour discussion of rules ranging from honors requirements to the computation of academic rank groups. CUE also decided to propose that classes other than review sessions be forbidden during the last two days of reading period.

Members of the student-faculty body cited instances in which professors have given hour exams or introduced new material late in reading period, and said they feel that requiring the two "dead days" just before final exams start will be more consistent with the "original purpose" of reading period.

But CUE, after some debate, decided to allow professors to file petitions to the Committee on the Administration of Educational Policy (CAEP) if they wish to seek exception to the no-testing rule.

Forcing professors to seek CAEP approval will put "a little more teeth" into the policy than simply issuing a "strong moral statement" against reading period tests. Sidney Verba '53. associate dean of the Faculty for undergraduate education and chairman of CUE, told the body.

"The petition means [professors] have to do some work" to secure exceptions, Verba said, adding that some leeway is necessary because "there's no rule you can ever write in the University that doesn't allow exceptions."

Other members said they feel reading period tests may be worthwhile in some courses, particularly language classes in which professors may be reluctant to break off a student's training.

The committee also debated for the second time a variety of methods of making honors requirements in the College more consistent. Members of the body have voiced concern that differing departmental standards have led many students to be confused about how they can attain honors recognition.

CUE members tentatively approved a proposal put forth by Verba that would establish a student's overall grade point average as the key honors requirement in addition to departmental recommendations.

Current rules call for students to have attained minimum grades--B-minus for cum laude, B for magna cum laude--in two-thirds of their courses to win honors.

But the committee failed to agree conclusively on standards for summa cum laude honors and whether the College should disregard freshman year grades in computing honors qualifications. It decided after 45 minutes of discussion to forward a series of alternative honors standards to the registrar, who will study their likely effect on the numbers of summa recipients and present findings to CUE shortly.

Revised questionnaires for the CUE Course evaluation guide also drew CUE's approval, after the body spent a half-hour modifying wording on the expanded questionnaire.

The new document, to be distributed in classes before Christmas, includes new questions including, "Have you ever had a one-to-one conversation with the instructor?" and "Does the course deal fairly with controversial issues and alternative views?