Faculty Grants Option on Exams; Students Plan Obstructive Picket

The Harvard Faculty- in a four-hour emergency meeting- voted yesterday to allow students the option of receiving credit in any course without taking the final examination

This motion is essentially the proposal voted on by students at Monday night's mass strike meeting.

The motion approved by the Faculty- proposed initially by Konrad E. Bloch, Higgins Professor of Biochemistry, with amendments by Bruce Chalmers, Master of Winthrop House, and Mark Ptashne, lecturer on Biochemistry and Molecular. Biology- provides several options:

Students may take the final exam in a given course, or prepare equivalent work required by the instructor, either this Spring or in the Fall;

Students may be graded on the basis of information now available to the instructor, foregoing the final exam;

Students may request by May 19 to be graded, by either of the above methods, pass-fail;

In cases in which the instructor has insufficient information to award a grade or make a pass-fail decision, the Registrat is instructed to record Credit:

All course heads have until May 20 to substitute other academic work for final exams;

Students receiving a Pass or a Credit this Spring may do additional work for a letter grade in the Fall.

This resolution, passed by a vote of 200-100, requires instructors to notify students who will not receive a passing grade by May 15. These students may then take the final exam either this Spring or in the Fall.

Dean May said last night that students with questions about his proposal should call the Registrar's office. A special committee of the Registrar: Archie C. Epps, assistant dean of the College; and Edward T. Wilcox, director of the Gen Ed program has been appointed to work out the details.

The Faculty also approved by voice a resolution- proposed by Roy J. Glauber, professor of Physics- "according the same respect to expressions of conscience by employees paid on an hourly basis as are accorded to salaried employees."

A similar but more specific proposal, providing that striking employees not be fired and receive full pay, was defeated by a vote of 153-62.

A statement of the sense of the meeting, prepared by Charles G. Gross, lecturer on Psychology, and Fotis C. Kafates, professor of Biology, was carried by voice vote.

Statement of Sense

The statement reads: "This Faculty expresses its support for the nationwide non-violent university action in opposition to the Vietnam War and to its recent tragic extension, as well as to the alarming signs of repression of political dissent in this country."

However the Faculty overwhelmingly defeated, 215-36, a motion by Hilary W. Putnam, professor of Philosophy, supporting the three demands voted on Monday by striking students.

The meeting tabled a final motion- by Don K. Price, dean of the Kennedy School of Government, and Nadav Safran, professor of Government- that a committee be appointed to arrange a two-week recess next Fall before the November elections in order that students could work for peace candidates.

Honor System Defeated

A proposal by Dean May putting all exams on the honor system, to be completed and returned by October 1, was eliminated in a straw vote during the first 45 minutes, when the Faculty met as a committee of the whole.

During this time 17 proposals were voted on. The Faculty then recessed for 15 minutes, and reconvened formally.

Quoting from the CRR resolution that the "central functions of the University are learning, teaching, research, and scholarship," Stephen A. Schuker, assistant professor of History, urged that all students opting out of exams this Spring "be requested to return home in 72 hours."

He was defeated during the straw vote.

"The notion that students should be able to concentrate in a time of crisis is a failure of imagination, and ultimately a failure of introspection," said Edwin E. Moise, Conant Professor of Education and Mathematics.

"These students do not deserve to be tolerated, to be excused," Moise continued. "They deserve our admiration, and they certainly have mine."

"It is almost impossible for any of us to do any intellectual activity," Alan Heimert, Master of Eliot House, said at the meeting. "The blame must be placed on this war which has poisoned the intellectual atmosphere."

Speaking against the Bloch proposal, David Riesman, Ford Professor of Social Sciences, said, "This would be a disservice to the students, the University, and the anti-war movement."

"The famine in which we all live will last a long time," Riesman said. "To burn the seed corn is a mistake."