MURDOCK POINTS OUT RECENT DEVELOPMENTS IN HIS ANNUAL REPORT

In his recent annual report to the President, K. B. Murdock '16, Dean of the Faculty of Arts and Sciences, stressed the sound financial status of the Faculty, the decision which reduced course requirements for degrees, and the adoption of the tutorial system by the Department of Astronomy; excerpts from his report follow:

"Although the income available for the Faculty has declined far below that originally estimated for 1932-33, the reductions in the Faculty budget are relatively slight. Salaries of all teaching officers, except those annual appointees whose salaries vary in direct proportion to the amount of work assigned them and are decreased or increased even in normal years in accordance with the work available for them, were not reduced, and the rate of salary paid teaching officers whose salaries are fixed by the work for which they are employed was not reduced. It is fortunate that past economies have made it possible for the Faculty of Arts and Sciences to meet the emergency for 1932-33 without as great sacrifices as would otherwise have been inevitable.

Course Requirements

"Perhaps the most important vote of the Faculty during the year was that passed on December 15 recommending to the Governing Boards that, beginning with the year 1932-33, the number of courses required for the degree of A.B. or S. B. for students concentrating in fields having General Final Examinations be fifteen in addition to prescribed English. Previously the requirement had been sixteen courses in addition to prescribed English. At the same time the Faculty recommended other changes in the rules to keep the number of satisfactory grades demanded of candidates for the degree as high in relation to the total number of courses as under the previous system. These recommendations were subsequently voted by the Governing Boards.

"The Faculty's recommendation was made on the basis of an elaborate report submitted by a sub-committee of the Committee on Instruction. The principle back of the change of degree requirements was that tutorial work, which has now become in all fields having General Examinations an essential part of the work for the degree, demands much time of the student and that the time thus spent should be at least in slight part compensated for by a reduction in the amount of formal course work demanded. Of course, even with the new rules, a student conscientiously meeting the standards in his courses and also doing good tutorial work does much more than his predecessor in the College did before the establishment of the tutorial scheme, when his work in courses alone sufficed to win him a degree. Yet it is quite clear from an examination of the figures for failures among candidates for the degree that the standard has not been placed too high for students to meet.