Dean Says No B-School Shift On Dismissals

Business School officials last night denied rumors that there was any policy change connected with the recent dismissal of 12 second-term seniors.

B-School students had charged that the administration used the men--an unprecedentedly large number -- as a warning against future laxity, and that in ordinary times the men would have been kept on.

In the past two years only three seniors have been expelled.

Others Petition Back

In addition to the 12 men dismissed, at least five others were given expulsion notices, but after petitioning to the scholarship committee, they were allowed to re-enter the School. According to W. Donnison Swan, Jr., Assistant Dean at the Business School, all men were allowed to petition, but only those who showed extenuating circumstances for the first term were taken back.

"There's no change of policy here," Swan said. "There's been do deliberate attempt to force men out or to scare other men. If their records were unsatisfactory, then they had to leave."

According to students, the crackdown was the result of lax attendance, particularly in one required course, Business Policy, where cuts had been quite high. Some said the dismissals were the beginning of a "get tough" policy on the part of the School.

Age Not a Factor

Swan declined to comment last night on whether or not the second year class' comparatively young average age had anything to do with the surprising number of dismissals. The Business School has been emphasizing veterans and older men in its more recent admissions policies, and the average man in the current class is a year older than the average man in the second year class.

The Business School increased its interviewing and recruiting program "three or four-fold" in making up the present second-year class, whose members have now run into difficulty. At that time, in 1953, an attempt was being made to gain wide geographic distribution.