Bunting Plans to Drop Separate Examinations

President Bunting has announced that separate exam facilities will not be offered to Radcliffe students this spring. Renovation of Longfellow Hall, which was used for the Radcliffe examinations, has necessitated the change.

Formerly, Radcliffe students were allowed to take exams separately from Harvard students in courses with a Radcliffe enrollment of 30 or more. The number of such exams has, however, decreased in recent years.

Last term there were only 24 exams segregated in this manner. This number has diminished especially in departments which employ special techniques in their examinations.

Music 1, for example, uses phonographs in final examinations. A separate exam requires a duplication of these special facilities, a move which departments have been increasingly reluctant to make.

Mrs. Bunting also noted that the merger of Harvard and Radcliffe's graduate schools has lowered the number of courses with more than thirty 'Cliffies officially enrolled.

Although she described the exam change as a temporary emergency measure, Mrs. Bunting said that there is considerable sentiment in the Registrar's office and among the faculty in favor of making it a permanent policy. Separate exams are often a nuisance for section men collecting blue books and for proctors checking attendance. But the RGA, Mrs. Bunting stressed, would have an opportunity to consider the advisability of making the change permanent.

Eliminates Honors System

Complete merger would eliminate the honors system which has governed Radcliffe's separate examinations until now. Cliffies would be subject to all of Harvard's examination regulations--including the scrutiny and regulations of the proctor.

'Cliffies would, for instance, be required to part with the traditional informality of their separate exams. Harvard proctors have usually not permitted Radcliffe students to wear slacks in examinations.

If the merger becomes permanent, Mrs. Bunting said, she hopes that steps will be taken to remedy defects in Harvard's proctor system, especially the noise and tension which it often creates.