TIMES CHANGE

The announcement by the Department of History and Literature that the Bible and Shakespeare examinations are to be advanced to the final reading period during the sophomore year is a very welcome one. The Department, always more advanced in this respect than the others, leads the way in a reform for which the CRIMSON has long agitated.

The advantages in this scheme are obvious and have been often stated. Pressure of work in the last two years is relieved and the necessary general back-ground is provided at a reasonable time during the college course. Whether or not the May reading period is the best time for the examinations can be decided by experience, but the important fact is that a practical step has been made to complete the reform of this situation in at least one Department. Now that this step has been taken it is logical that other branches of the college should follow suit. In the English Department and in all others concerned with the same problem, all the examinations in Bible and Shakespeare, Ancient Authors, and the like, fall at the same time at the beginning of the senior year. To separate the examinations as has been done by the Department of History and Literature so that one set comes at the end of the sophomore year and the other at the start of the junior year would be a satisfactory solution of this administrative dilemma.