Council Is Created by Conant To Replace Faculty Meetings

Putting into action the recommendations made in his first annual report and that of Dean Kenneth B. Murdock, President Conant announced yesterday that a new council of sixty members of the Faculty of Arts and Sciences will meet with him frequently in the fall.

The proposal of President Conant was brought up at the last meeting of the Board of Overseers and the creation of such a council was approved. The rules for the election of members were also approved.

President Conant and Dean Murdock expressed the need for a faculty council in their annual reports, and explained that the present size of the faculty has made it difficult for the President to get a useful discussion of questions at general faculty meetings.

Smaller Group Needed

The efficiency of the Administrative Board plan was not denied by President Conant but he pointed out that it tends to debar from discussion a large number and keeps the President from being in close touch with the general sentiment.

In the past the faculty meetings have been either unwieldy or not representative of the entire staff. With the increase in the teaching staff this difficulty grew and President Conant has moved to have the council confer with him on the large number of questions which face the new administration.

One representative from each of the departments under the Faculty of Arts and Sciences will be chosen, and the method of election is left up to the individual departments. All elections to the Council shall be for the period of one year and no member of the faculty shall be elected by the faculty to membership for more than two one-year terms in any period of five years.