CUE Decides To Restructure Pass-Fail Rule

The Committee on Undergraduate Education (CUE) voted almost unanimously yesterday to extend by six weeks the period in which a student can change a course from pass-fail to graded.

Under the new measure, students would be able to change one course from pass-fail to graded until the eleventh Monday of the term.

Currently, students must make this change by the fifth Monday of the term. The time allotted for a change from a graded to pass-fail, however, would remain the same.

The Faculty Council must still approve the measure before it can be effective. The Council will probably consider the measure at their January 12 meeting, George C. Homans, Dean of Undergraduate Education said yesterday.

Homans, who voted in favor of the measure at the CUE meeting could not predict whether the Faculty would favor the motion.

Homans and a majority of the committee felt that under the current system, students have no real indication of how they are doing in a course by the fifth Monday of the term.

Only one CUE member, Harry R. Lewis, Associate Professor of Computer Science, voted against the measure.

"It encourages the manipulation of one's transcript to achieve a higher GPA," Lewis said yesterday.

Although he favors the resolution, Homans echoed Lewis' concern. "It may make a pass look worse on one's record," he said. "But this is the only problem I can see with it," he added