Council Urges Delaying Advance Standing Vote

The Student Council will ask the faculty today to postpone voting on the Advanced Standing plan until the Council has had opportunity to investigate it.

Clifford L. Alexander '55, president, took special steps last night to delay faculty action. He stated that the Council must obtain more information, concerning the proposed plan in order to approximates its future effect on the undergraduate here and to get some idea of what the Council can do to aid in the exchange of information between the faculty and students concerning the plan.

Alexander will meet with Dean Bundy this afternoon and may call a special meeting of the Council tonight to take action.

The original decision to ask for delay in ratification came about as a result of general feeling at the Monday night meeting of the Council that undergraduates did not know much about the plan and that it was the Council's duty to get more information to them.

Influence on Future

Things of this sort might have a great influence on future Harvard graduates' ability to get jobs, Alexander commented. While a somewhat similar plan was in effect at the University of Chicago, allowing for a reduction in time spent as an undergraduate, other college administrators called Chicago's B.A. a "bastard of arts." They forced Chicago graduates to reregister for "real" B.A.'s at their universities before they could do graduate work there.

"No Immediate Action"

The Council at present has a committee to study acceleration possibilities here but Alexander described its main functions as "studying the situation and making recommendations."

Dean Bundy's office commented last night that the faculty will "not necessarily take any immediate action" on the proposals anyway.

Bundy presented the plan to the Faculty for discussion for the first time February 17. At that time the faculty seemed to indicate support of the Educational Policy Committee's report.

If students skip their last year in high school, as the Advanced Standing Program might allow, instead of omitting the freshman year in college, the problem of insubstantial B.A. degrees will be obviated.