Meeting of Conference Committee.

The third meeting of the Conference Committee was held yesterday afternoon in Sever 27. Every member of the conference was present. Prof. Palmer, the chairman, called the meeting to order. Mr. Vogel in behalf of the senior members of the committee, proposed the following rules to govern the call of meetings and the procedure in debate:

(1) Meetings shall be called only when definite subjects are proposed:

(2) Meetings can be called only at the request of a majority of the faculty or student members of the committee.

(3) After a definite subject has been handed in, it shall be submitted to a committee of five, who shall frame it for discussion. This committee shall consist of two faculty members, two student members, and the proposer of the subject for discussion.

These rules were adopted.

Mr. Furber then introduced the marking system as the topic for discussion, and presented a scheme designed to provoke discussion of the various points. Various opinions were expressed, and an interesting overhauling of minor points maintained. The following resolutions introduced by Mr. Merriam were passed, nem. con:

Resolved, That the members of the Conference Committee deem the marking system, now in use at Harvard, unsuited to the elective system, and that they strongly recommend a change.

Resolved, That it is desired that by this change the inequalities of marks arising from different degrees of work required in different courses, and from different standards of marking pursued by different instructors, as far as possible, be removed. The system proposed by Mr. Furber, and which met with general approval, was that of marking by classes, instead of by exact percentages. These resolutions passed at this meeting will be submitted to the faculty as the formal opinion of the conference.

The next meeting of the conference will be called by the chairman, subject to the rules adopted at this meeting.