Detour

After more than a year's review, the faculty has voted to replace the summer Bridge Program, initiated in 1968 to strengthen the basic academic skills of incoming students with comparatively weak educational backgrounds, with a three-term Intensive Academic Support program to continue throughout the freshman year.

The high cost and limited participation in the Bridge Program were primary reasons behind the recommendation that it be discontinued. It had been offered, on an entirely voluntary basis, to any student accepted for admission who scored below a stipulated level on Scholastic Aptitude Tests. Last year only 32 entering students, out of 106 invited, took advantage of the ten-week program - at a cost of $2,536 per student plus the additional salaries of faculty and administrators involved.

The black community at the College has been divided on the issue. Some students felt that participation stigmatized them; others felt that it offered invaluable academic support in overcoming deficiences resulting from poor secondary preparation. The faculty Black Caucus recommended that it be dropped because "the per capita cost of the Bridge Program is considered exorbitant." On the other hand, the student Afro-American Society picketed the February meeting of the faculty executive committee to protest its contemplated discontinuance.

The new Intensive Academic Support program will be open to freshmen placed in remedial English 2 or Math 2. It will include intensive freshman advising, provision for undergraduate tutors, and a new course in analytical reading. The steering committee will comprise a director, four faculty members, the freshman dean, and the head of the Reading and Study Skills program.

Where Bridge students received 100 per cent financial aid for the summer program, the same amount of funding, divided over the three terms, will be provided for participants in the new program.