Make-up Courses Out?

THE Dartmouth faculty has voted to abolish the requirement that every course failure must be "made up" at summer school or by taking extra work during the college year. The proposal will be submitted to the Board of Trustees at its next meeting and, if approved, will go into effect in September 1963, affecting only courses failed after that time.

The proposal calls for a revision of the degree requirements so that students will be required to complete - not necessarily pass - 36 different term-courses, plus Great Issues. Students would still have to pass the courses necessary to meet distributive and major requirements.

However, courses failed because of "flagrant neglect" would be so noted on the student's permanent record and the work would have to be made up. Such neglect would be automatic grounds for probation or suspension.

"We want to remove the unreasonable distinction between the grades of D and E," Dean Thaddeus Seymour said. Academic standards will continue to be maintained by the Committee on Administration, which formulated the proposal, and existing requirements for good standing will continue to be enforced. An accumulation of failures will take on increased significance, however, since the credits cannot be made up.

At present, a student who fails a course need not repeat the same course to make up the lost credit. As a result, many students make up failures by taking courses in summer school. The committee report questions the logic and relevance of this procedure.

The proposed revision would not only eliminate the problem of summer school "make-ups," but would avoid another difficulty. Some students who fail courses and who are unable, for financial or other reasons, to go to summer school, attempt to make up the lost credit by taking an extra course at Dartmouth. The committee feels that this places an additional burden on the students least capable of handling an increased course load.