Some Room to Breathe

Exam days are always the dog days at the University. And the tail of the canine droops even lower when students find all their exams bunched into the beginning of the exam period. During the unhappy fortnight just passed, courses given at three of the most popular times--ten and eleven o'clock--tested their students during the first four days of the period. A glance at the spring schedule shows that this will happen again in April.

Now, the Registrars Office should not putter around, paternalistically trying to help students over the academic hump by spacing examinations with a yardstick. It should, however, and has tried conscientiously in the past, to eliminate the worst inconveniences from the schedule. Simple majority rule should be the standard: classes with the greatest number of students should have at least one day of breathing space between them. Such a change this year might irretrievably snafu the IBM machines. But in the future the bulk of the College should have to stumble from exam to exam without a break.