Six-Day Week
ONE feature of the new three-course, three-term plan was the cause of undergraduate agitation last month when it became known that the faculty had voted for classes on six days a week instead of five, as had been proposed by some members, and that all morning classes would include Saturday in their weekly sequence. As the news filtered out to the students, The Dartmouth played up the compulsory" aspect of Saturday morningclasses and asserted that the main reason for adopting them was the College's desire to cut down on weekend driving. Letters to the editor flowed in and 300 seniors signed a petition declaring that the schedule adopted was a denial of the indepenence in learning the new curriculum aims to foster, and requested a meeting with President Dickey to discuss it. President Dickey, scheduled at that particular juncture to be the Great Issues speaker, was able to devote the Tuesday morning discussion period to some of the questions raised by the students.
Weekend driving was one of a number of supplementary issues considered by the faculty committee asked to study the question of the five-day versus the six-day week, but in the general hubbub it jumped to an inflated position and the basic educational reasons for the faculty's decision were almost ignored. The whole matter of the new weekly schedule was put into better perspective, fortunately, by the Undergraduate Journal, which is published periodically by the College and distributed to the entire student body. It contained a complete and detailed explanation by the Associate Registrar, Prof. Robin Robinson '24, who was the faculty committee's expert on class scheduling.
The myriad points to be taken into consideration - the increase of weekly meetings for each course from three to four, laboratory periods, two-hour classes, hour exams outside of class hours, chapel periods, and ROTC drill hours among them - were spelled out by Professor Robinson to show how technical considerations pointed to the greater adaptability of the six-day week.
Professor Robinson also wrote: "An admitted weakness of the present schedule is the problem faced by the teacher who finds his Saturday classes more than decimated by absenteeism. Many of the Faculty have found this situation well-nigh insupportable, and have come to the conclusion that the situation must change radically either one way or the other either by turning to the five-day week or by taking steps to assure better Saturday attendance. Since the committee members were all but unanimous in finding the adoption of the five-day week out of keeping with the educational aims of the College as well as unmanageable, they refused to assume that nothing could be done to improve the possibility of making Saturday classes more effective, and, in essence, recommended that Saturday should be regarded as an essential day of the weekly schedule, just as Monday or Wednesday or any other weekday is, except of course that Saturday afternoons should be kept free as in the past."
The fact that all morning class sequences include Saturday will help to make Saturday classes a more significant part of the college week, he added. There will be no afternoon classes on Saturday, and a considerable number of students who elect afternoon classes or seminar, conference and thesis courses will be free of Saturday morning obligations as well.
