Group Urges Wide Changes At Dartmouth

HANOVER, N.H., April 19-Drastic changes in the Dartmouth program to "push every student to the limit of his creative ability" have been recommended by a committee of 11 professors.

If adopted, the recommendations would generally stiffen the Dartmouth curriculum both by offering more highly concentrated courses and by raising grade standards. The report, released yesterday to the press and college officials, must win approval of faculty, administration and the Board of Trustees before it can be put in force.

The professors recommended that students be required to take only four courses per semester instead of five. They suggested the reduction because they found the curriculum "too crowded," and charged that students often take easy courses in which they have no intellectual interest just to fill out the five course requirement.

Similar to Gen. Ed.

Another radical change would split the college career into two parts, with the first two years devoted to required courses in diverse fields and the last two to concentration courses. The first two years would include broad courses taught across departmental lines, similar in many respects to the general education program at the University.

The report asserted that some professors lowered grade standards to encourage registration in their courses, and students corroborated the allegation. To remedy this, the report suggested departmental standards of grading by which a student would be marked not just against his won section or course, but against the level of the entire department.

Copleining that at Dartmouth "affairs of the mind frequently defer to social and athletic affairs" and that "few of our students over do any academic work beyond the prescribed minimum.," the recommendations aimed at a general revitalization of Dartmouth's "educational program and intellectual atmosphere."

The committee also recommended a sweeping student honor system encompassing all phases of campus life, completely voluntary class attendance to replace a limited cuts system.