Unlimited Cuts

A Problem that colleges have tried to solve in a variety of ways—and for which there is, apparently, no universal or ideal answer—is that of class attendance. At Dartmouth the cut system has been periodically revised over the years, but steadily in the direction of eliminating arbitrary and inflexible mechanisms for compelling students to go to class. The point of view that has increasingly prevailed among the faculty and administration is that the responsibility for attending class and meeting academic obligations rests wholly with the individual student, and that so long as he does the work of the course and satisfies the instructor both as to attendance and scholastic performance, no compulsory cut system is called for.

Last month the Dartmouth Faculty Council accepted the recommendations o£ the Committee on Administration and adopted new attendance requirements, effective next fall, which are perhaps the most liberal and "adult" ever in effect at the College. In essence, specific attendance regulations have been eliminated entirely, and satisfactory class attendance has been made a matter to be settled between the student and instructor. The student, on the one hand, is informed that he "is expected to attend regularly the scheduled meetings of the course in which he is enrolled and conscientiously give these academic engagements precedence over all other activities." The instructor, on the other hand, although relieved of keeping attendance records and of filing a record of absences along with each student's grade, has the responsibility for initiating disciplinary action because of unsatisfactory class attendance and for protecting the educational program of the College permitting the abuse of the new "unlimited cut system," as the students like to call it.

Actually, the newly adopted attendance regulations are not different in principle from those in effect at present. In several important details, however, the new system constitutes a decided change. One o£ these is the elimination of the present regulation that students be present at all their scheduled exercises on the day immediately following a recess, vacation or holiday. Instructors are expected to refuse to excuse absences taken then, but the iron-clad rule has been removed on the theory that it differentiates between the responsibility the student has at all times and that which he has on certain special days. Another important detail is the new power given to the instructor to reduce a mans grade, after warning, because of unsatisfactory attendance. And another is the dropping of an attendance check on men on probation, although they will still be warned by the Dean's office.

The greater measure of responsibility given to the student has been hailed by the Undergraduate Council, which made recommendations to this end to the Committee on Administration during the past year. An intensive faculty study of the problem preceded final action by the Faculty Council on May 8. A trial period of two years has been accepted for the new system, and proponents of the plan feel confident that the increasing signs of student responsibility, spearheaded by the work of the Undergraduate Council, augur well for the success of the more adult regulations adopted. There were some who felt that a different set of attendance rules ought to be devised for the freshmen, or possibly for freshmen and sophomores, but it was finally agreed that the sooner the freshmen came face to face with their individual responsibilities as college men the better. So the student body as a whole will be on its attendance mettle next fall, and the faculty too will have to play its intelligent and conscientious part in making the new system work.

Meanwhile, evidence that the cut problem has perhaps taken only a new tack cropped up in the "Vox Populi" column of The Dartmouth soon after announcement of the new regulations. "The new system is not responsibilty. This is a knife in the back," wrote an irate student, who saw no connection between attendance and a course grade. "Why not simply rule that the student come to class as often as he feels is necessary to maintain a creditable average?" As stated at the outset, it's an old-old problem.