NEW RULING SETS UP 'INSURED QUORUM' FOR ALL FACULTY MEETINGS IN FUTURE

The Faculty of Arts and Sciences, the body to which is entrusted the guidance of educational policy in the College but which often cannot muster a quorum at its meetings, will henceforth have at least an "insured quorum" at every session.

Under the complicated terms of the new "rules relating to organization and procedure," the Faculty will annually elect one-fifth of its membership of approximately 330 men to serve as a permanent quorum with "a special obligation to attend all meetings, regular and special."

The "selected members" who make up the insured quorum will be elected by the Faculty as a whole, grouped according to "areas" which will combine several departments. The insured quorum will include full professors, associate professors, and Faculty instructors in the same proportions as does the whole Faculty.

No Special Privileges

Selected members will have no privileges not possessed by other Faculty members, who may also attend meetings, participate in discussions, and vote.

The new system replaces the Faculty Council, which was set up several years ago when the attendance problem first became acute, but which was suspended last fall at the time of the tenure controversy. The Council was also elected by the Faculty, but unlike the insured quorum it had exclusive rights to represent the Faculty--no non-Council members could participate in Council meetings.

Another salient feature of the new Faculty set-up is the establishment of three Standing Committees: on Organization and Procedure, on Educational Policy in Harvard College, and on Introductory instruction. There will also be a Joint Committee on Course Offerings.

Report to Faculty

The function of these committees will be to study matters within their respective fields, and to report the results of their study to the Faculty "in the form most helpful for facilitating Faculty consideration and action."

The revised Faculty organization is the outgrowth of lengthy discussion of reports submitted to the Faculty by a special committee headed by Julian L. Coolidge '15, professor of Mathematics, and by the Harvard branches of the American Association of University Professors and the Teachers Union, although it conforms mere closely to the suggestions embodied in the Coolidge committee report than to the alternate plans.

An insured quorum system has been in force for some time in the Medical School Faculty.