3

On Coeducation

It started out to be a good idea, this joint issue with a
upplement on Bryn Mawr-Haverford coordination, Es war
in Traum, After we started soliciting articles, that is,
e began to wonder whether this coordination between
«| ur purportedly progressive schools was as real as we
had taken for granted,

Sure, there are some shining examples of bi-college
= cooperation: the federated Economics Department, the
: mutual Russian Department, the joint activities in the
arts, coeducational classes, the fast for Vietnam, Harry
A ine the bus, the meal exchange, campus mail, and the

: inevitable social life,

. However, what we were looking for was some insight
-into the potential for Future Coordination--but all we












zx Coordination, Meanwhile, the Haverford and Bryn Mawr
Arts Councils rejected our proposal for a joint arts
: festival. We couldn’t even find any political a’gogos to
#e¢ write an article about the fast, let alone on possibilities
- for a joint conference of some sort, Any sort, At this
_ 888 point we weren’t being picky.
* The most hope, it would appear, is for future co-
* ordination in the academic sphere. What Mr, Schmidt
# suggests in his article on the foreign-language depart-
= ments might be feasible in any department of the two
: colleges, Since students. may. take courses at. either
: school, why offer the identical courses at both Haverford
#: and Bryn Mawr? With greater coordination, fewer dupli-
: cate courses would be offered, and professors would be
se left free to teach a greater variety of courses, From an
=# administrative viewpoint, it is unlikely that many more
% departments will be federated, but coordinated course
# offerings are as desirable as a coordinated calendar,
oe and are hardly out of the realm of possibility,
= Truthfully, the most disappointing thing about evaluat-



= ing bi-college cooperation was discovering that by and
see large neither students nor ee ake seem to
q ES anticipate any further coordination, The preceding sug-
| = gestion to eliminate duplicate courses is practically
‘ the only immediate possibility, It would be unfortunate,
# with so much potential at each school, for bi-college

“ coordination to remain static.
Granted, coordination already exists to a considerable
: extent, which is half the reason sor this joint issue, But
Bryn "Mawr and Haverford are not known for leaving
: : things half-done, We hold the conclusion of this editorial,
therefore, to be self-evident: it would be advantageous
or both Bryn Mawr and Haverford in nearly every way
if the two colleges were to merge into one magnificent

co-educational institution,







Self Gov Solution

Self-Gov is circulating a questionnaire that explores

, the relation of the student to the honor system that.

administers her social behavior. The central issue is the
perennial clash of personal standards with community
responsibility, and a thorough evaluation is long over-
due.

A student in residence at Bryn Mawr has voluntarily
entered herself as a member of the college community
for a four-year term. No individual interpretation is
possible on this matter, Her acceptance of a dormi-
tory room is tantamount to a declaration of citizen-
ship, . ’

The Self-Government Association is a student organiza-
tion dealing with student concerns during this residency.
When Self-Gov abdicates its position or allows its func-
tions to become hazy, the administration may step into
the vacuum, A general confusion of respective roles
has recently been evident, with freshmen turning first
to the dean in moments of crisis instead of carrying
their bewilderment over conduct regulations to the hall
president.

The present situation has characterized Self-Gov as
the defender of the individual and the administration
as the champion of community cooperation, This dis-
tribution of support is a distortion of the proper redlms
of responsibility, Community life is a central concern of

students and falls under the jurisdiction of Self-Gov. .

In its present self-examination, Self-Gov is enter-
taining the prospect of a statement of policy and the task
of rendering explicit the ambiguous discredit clause.
Such measures are minor steps that do not strike at
the core of the difficulty. A formal regulation can be
just as easily ignored as an indistinct hint, as exem-
plified by the frequently perpetuated and observed
violations of the smoking-in-rooms rule that are neither
curbed nor reported, An official statement would serve
only to cloud the issue by adding another unfounded
pronouncement to the present litter of specific rules
and vague policies,

The response to the smoking rule is symptomatic of
the general attitude toward Self-Gov that plagues the
campus, The general philosophy of the social honor
system is submerged in a welter of rules, some ar-
chaic and fuzzy, others painfully detailed and irreve-
lant to the lives of many students. Entering fresh-
men are indoctrinated at once with a large dose of
Self-Gov principle, but the pressure to pass the rule
exam leads to a preoccupation with the myriad details
involved in winning a passing grade. The returning
hordes of upperclassmen, spouting doctrines of priva-
tism and personal rights, further negate the concept









of community ties,

The most effective remedy for this state of affairs
is education, and the most effective instructor is’ the
hall president. Freshmen should be taught early that
Self-Gov is «a philosophy of independence and consid-
eration, allowing room for freedom of principle with-
in a framework of mutual respect in- the dormitory
and in the college community. Upperclassmen need
to be reminded of the foundation beneath the restric-

_ tions; the hall meeting is the obvious channel of instruc- 22:
tion, Be
Self-Gov is a representative organization with a

double responsibility to students as individuals and as

a group, Rules are a means of enforcing minimal i:
standards ‘for the benefit of the group without inter- Ed
fering with the rights of the individual. The proper em-3 ae
phasis must be restored to the general. understanding *
of Self-Gov, and education through hall presidents as =
links of liaison is the simplest, most efficient correc-:
tive, 3

neice

Activities F

Undergrad, at its meeting this week, decided to poste :
pone until next fall any further consideration of the rais-
ing of the student activities fee. Two facts, immediately :
evident, make this seem particularly unfortunate.

First, the degree of general interest in the subject:
of the activities fee and the level of general knowledge :
about the actual and potential uses of such a fee are:
at present remarkably high. Postponement of a decision :
on this matter will necessitate a massive re-education :
of opinion in the fall when there will be an entire class
of new freshmen,

ss
to have an appreciable effect on the quantity and/or
caliber of next year’s activities, it would have to be 2:
agreed on now, for it is now that next year’s calendar 2%
of events must, in large part, be set up. ae
Two different proposals for the increase of the fee #
have been put forward--the first, one of $1.00, which #%
would serve mainly to compensate for inflation; the =
second, one of $9.00, almost doubling the total, which, =
while it would probably not enable a radical change in %
such things as the type of speakers secured, might well 2:
make more feasible the arranging of topical programs : :
extending over several days and providing a concentrat :
ed exposure to various aspects of the same subject. :
An educated student opinion has recently been polled on :
the matter of a fee increase; the general response wa
not merely favorable, but enthusiastic. It was scarcely : i
a mandate for inaction. %





Sampling of Professors Favors Pass-Fail _





Before a pass-fail system is Seriously considered by
the faculty or administration, there are many practical
questions which the students ought to keep in mind. Sev-
eral of these came up in an interview with Mrs, Alice
Emerson of the Bryn Mawr Political Science Depart-
ment. After commenting that the new policy of drafting
students probably was the cause of an increase in in-
terest in this system in men’s colleges, she said that
its many other advantages applied very well to Bryn
Mawr. She thinks that it is “certainly something we
ought to try.’?

The two purposes she sncihains a pass-fail system
as being able to implement are: 1) giving students a
chance to explore new areas other than their major;
and 2) working for a general de-emphasis of grades.
The pass-fail courses a. student takes thus ought not to
be a fifth course, because theoretically the student
ought to be working just as hard asif she were receiving
grades, If pass-fail were presented as just ‘another way
to audit a course and so were not taken as seriously as
it might be, discussion-based courses could be ruined by
pass-fail students continually being unprepared.

This brings up the problem of what kind of courses
a student might take on a pass-fail basis. We asked
several girls which courses they would like to take
this way, and no one specific course or field was men-
tioned particularly often. In fact, a surprising number
of girls said that the option of pass-fail wouldn’t
make any difference in their course choices. This sug-
gests that no one course or courses would be inundated
with pass-fail students,

‘Another question to be settled is whether or not the
teacher should know the student is taking his course
‘on a pass-fail basis or not. If not, should the girls re-
ceive number grades on papers and exams even though
these won’t go on the record? The University of Pennsyl-
vania’s new plan specifies that teachers will not know

the difference between pass-fail students and regular ~

ones. Mrs. Emerson’s point of view was that the faculty
should know the difference, so they wouldn’t have to
spend the time over their numerical grades. She also

felt. that it would be_impossible at Bryn Mawr to keep ~
a secret of who was taking a course on what basis.

What about the responsibility of the Deans’ Office?

_ Should they encourage students to take their pass-fail |
options in a. variety of courses, or let the student take

them all in one field? (All this goes on the supposition
that students would not be allowed to take a course in

their major or for graduation distribution requirements
as pass-fail.) Mrs. Emerson suggested that four semes-
ters oyt of 31 could be taken as pass-fail, Mrs. Emer-
son was inclined to let the student use her pass-fail
time as she wanted, after emphasizing to her the pur-
poses of the system.

Miss Frederica de Laguna, anthropology, when asked
to comment on a possible pass-fail plan for Bryn Mawr,
recalled its similarity with the second semester of her
senior year at Bryn Mawr, At that time, there were no
senior comprehensives and all the grades were compiled
by the end of first semester, so no grades received
during the second semester were recorded for graduate
school applications or for graduation class standings.

Miss de Laguna’s first reaction to the plan was that
it would make taking a fifth course easier, which she
does not see as particularly advantageous. However, if
it would in any way make school more fun (as she
remembers second semester of her senior year was),
she would be willing to try it. Basically, though, she
was not sure if pass-fail would make much difference
and advised everyone to wait to see how the new curri-

‘culum would work out, as well as how pass-fail worked in

other schools, before new changes are initiated here.

Her main point was that the Bryn Mawr grading sys-
tem wasn’t such a burden that it needed to be avoided
at any cost. In anthropology, she has found that‘her ma-
jors have no real problem in getting into graduate
schools,
grades,’ was her attitude.

Richard Du Boff, economics, was all in favor of some
kind of pass-fail system for Bryn Mawr. He saw it as
a possible step toward a much needed increase in
flexibility in student-teacher relationships. The pass-
fail system could introduce an atmosphere in which
students would be encouraged to be more imaginative
in their approaches to classes, in other words, to make
‘student application’? a more diversely expressed activ-
ity. He thought a pass-fail system would be particular-

ly adaptable to Bryn Mawr because of its small size and —
the supposed high intellectual quality of its students. Es-
“sentially he seemed to think that sucha system could very
_well lead to the kind of démotratic education Mr. Oppen-

heimer discusses in his article on page 6,

Mr. Melville Kennedy, political sciénce, also ex-
pressed an interest in adopting a pass-fail system, He
was in favor’ of ‘‘anything to encourage experimenta-
tion’’ in the eens aaa Mr. Du Bott, “he was con-

“Students are frightening themselves over

cerned with introducing more flexibility into the college
situation. He didn’t feel that grades deterred many stu-
dents from taking. courses here, but he did feel that
‘pass-fail would encourage students to take a fifth course,
which, unlike some of his colleagues,he saw as a point
in the system’s favor. He also said that a pass-fail
system in creating flexibility, might in some way help
‘to integrate Haverford offerings, which ought to be en-
couraged in any way it can.’? Discussing Haverford’s
pass-fail plan, he said that any such plan would be use-
less unless it was geared into the college’s credit ar-
rangement. Kit Bakke










The College News

Editors-in-Chicf
Terry Jones
Lavid Millstone



Nanette Holben
E Kit Bakke
2 Associate Editors. ....






eo tee 6.00 8 6 8 8 eS

Maryanne Spriegel
Business Managers ...... . + wwev es Fern Hunt,
Diane Ostheim, David Wilson
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Act of March 3, 1879. Application for re-entry~at
the Bryn Mawr, Pa. Post Office filed October Ist,
1963.
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Founded in 1914
Published weekly during the College
Year (except during Thanksgiving,
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