Calendar Reform Moves Ahead

Supporters of calendar revision are smiling about more than spring's mild weather and blue skies, as both students and the Faculty Council reacted favorably last week to the proposed early semester system.

The proposal gathered support from nearly 80 per cent of the undergraduates answering a March 21 questionnaire, the first attempt to gauge student opinion on the academic schedule. The poll drew responses from slightly less than half of the student body.

The Faculty Council provided the first formal Faculty reviews of calendar revision Wednesday when it was "very well impressed" by arguments for the calendar chage, according to Edward O. Wilson, professor of Zoology and a Council member.

Although the Council members did not vote on the proposal, they favor it "virtually unanimously," Wilson said Wednesday.

Matina S. Horner, Radcliffe President, another Council member, said Wednesday that the proposal has a "really good" chance to pass the Faculty. If approved, the schedule change would take effect in Fall 1974.

A class-by-class breakdown of the CHUL poll results indicates that the younger classes support the change more than the upper-classes. Over 70 per cent of the seniors polled favor the change, but the support reaches 85 per cent in the Class of 1976.

The Faculty is expected to vote on the proposal in early May. If it is approved, freshmen entering in the 1974-5 academic year will spend their Labor Day holiday sunning on the beaches--of the Charles River.