Council Calls For Changes To Improve Reading Period

Members of the Undergraduate Council are considering an effect to make course workloads more equal during reading period.

"There is definitely an inequality between the science workload during reading period and the humanities workload during reading period," said Janet A. Sacs '86, explaining the interest of the council's Academics Committee in the subject.

Members of the committee said yesterday that they hope to discuss possible changes in the formal of reading period with the Committee on Undergraduate Education (CUE), the student-faculty committee that reviews curriculum matters for the Faculty.

Gary L. Frenkel, another member of the Academics Committee, mentioned a number of suggestions for alleviating the reading period crunch, including not allowing exams or quizzes during the two weeks before exams, as well as not allowing the introduction of new material into courses.

These proposals would make reading period more equitable for students, Frenkel said.

Guidelines

"We want to see if we can get some kind of guidelines on what reading period should be--a statement, a philosophy about reading period," another committee member, Ben I. Broader '85, said. "We have to realize, though, that we're asking the Faculty to set guidelines for themselves; we're not setting them."

The five professors on CUE could not be reached for comment yesterday. Any changes approved by CUE would have to be approved by the entire Faculty.

Students on the Academics Committee expressed pessimism that the student-faculty committee would actually push forward with changes in reading period.

Even if the changes are not made, science majors contacted yesterday said they supported the intent of the Academics Committee.

Chemistry concentrator Rebecca Hung '85 said, "If you're in the sciences, reading period doesn't really exist, especially in the introductory science classes."

"Most of the time reading period isn't much of a change for me--maybe one-fourth less work is assigned," added Michael M. Dowling '85, a biochemistry con concentrator.