&UUa*uSt Oi^ioaiiatu Complaint Dept.: Grading System ^ soirc^ Spring terra—and it's time for the quarterly com plaint about the grading system. Are you one of those students who consistently make high C’s (or high D’s or B’s) in your work ? Conies the revolution, the guy sitting next to you who gets low B’s, C’s, or D’s is going to be out of luck. N o longer will you wind up with the same grade at the term’s end in spite of the disparity in your work. Some instruc tors—there 11 be a , L‘ e K . place in Heaven F ' 1 " c e for them because of their good inteneitons—use a total point system to keep close account of a student’s progress over the course of a term. Others use some sort of a flexible numerical grade to avoid rough letter grades. Yet they are forced to give grades that are only approxi mate after all the results are in, and they know ex actly where each member of the class stands in rela tion to the others. Looking at the situation from the point of view of the students, it’s worse. It’s rough when you come up with an average of 79 and get a C for a grade, when the guy next to you may be making a B out of a score of 80. It's just as rough on another person who also got a B but had a score of 89. . If you're interested in the end result, after four years of college it"s possible for you to wind up with the same GPA as someone else wh.o may have aver aged nearly ten per cent lower in his work. As far as the GPA idea is now concerned, it has absolutely no validity because of what it is based on. Since the last suggestion for a new grading sys tem as used at Whitman College seemed to meet with little favor, what about this one? Why not issue grades for individual courses such as 2.4, 2.5, 3.0, 3.1, and so forth. That way a grade point average would have some significance, and wouldn’t be appreciably harder to tally. Skipping lightly over the caustic comments of one professor on four-day vacations and registration held concurrently with classes, what does the crew up at Emerald Hall do with grades once they are turned in? One student, who for the sake of convenience we’ll call Bill Rogers, dropped by the joint to see if he couldn’t get his grades sent to himself in Eugene rather than his parents, as he feels he is now big enough to be trusted with them. He showed his yellorv teeth in a fawning smile ■ when he made the request, and even said “please.” The response was highly unsatisfactory. “It won’t do ya any good,” snapped the innocent looking girl behind tthe information desk, “and be sides, ya won’t get yer grades for about a month any way.” “What?” yelped Rogers. “Look, I was thinking of graduating. Do you mean to tell me I won’t know whether I’m going to before the middle of Spring term ?” “Yep. Tough.” This suspense is great isn’t it? Inexperienced By Walt McKinney Let’s all bow down and Allah to the young and inexperienced University instructors who have set themselves up as little tin Gods. They know all, see all, and yet lack the mellowness and seasoning that comes from the experience of teaching. What kind of an instructor is it that refuses to discuss,grades in an institution that places so much stress on GPA? Small indeed, and most immature, is the yoitng in structor who obstinately refuses to give ground when logical arguments are presented—who bases much of his grading on the personalities of his students in place of final and midterm examinations. Is the young instructor who refuses to sit down and objectively discuss grades, which seem to have become the mea suring stick for success, in any way mature and ca pable to the degree of teaching in a University such as this? What kind of instructor is he who is unable to remain calm before his students, who turns his back and resorts to name calling in place of construc tive discussion ? In my opinion, a person of this type has no place in teaching or any other activity which deals with a large number of people. The end of every term brings the same type of gripes. Many are justified and many are magnified by the heat of temper and feeling of self-indignation which easily arises. However, such behavior on the part of any instructor reflects little credit on the instructor’s ability, the course, depart ment, and the University itself. fatin' at Random Fame and Bellevue !uf fla Qilbesit Read two good books during the “vacation” (loosest possible usage of the term—since when has an extra long week end been termed a vacation?) In fact I started one of the books, THE PAS SIONATE JOUR NEY by Irving Stone, during the late, unlamented fin al week and found myself unable to lay it down. At least that sounds like a good excuse for the lack of a four point. Seriously, THE PASSIONATE JOURNEY is great! It is Stone’s second try at a novel based on the life of a painter. Fifteen years ago he turned out the very fine LUST FOR LIFE based on the life of Vin cent Van Gogh. Now he has used the American ar tist, John Noble, as the basis of history. The improvement since the Van Gogh effort is tremendous. Improvement in writing technique, un derstanding, feeling, and expression is found through out the entire book. Noble, born in Wichita, spent his entire life searching, not quite knowing the wherefore of this compelling hunger that drove him on. The object of this hunger, he discovered, was a creative unity, es sence, universality and these he tried to express in his work, even in his life. His hunger took him from, Wichita, to Paris, Brittany, and Cape Cod. And it was this hunger that made him eager to die, to meet' the White Buffalo, the symbol of his search. Around Noble, through good and bad, fame anti Bellevue, is his wife, Amelia. Influenced by him are Francis, his first love, who persuaded her money loving husband, Marty, to give the youth a chance, a chance that Noble didn’t have. And Marty himself, who became an art collector by accidetit, though' knowing nothing about art—all are well portrayed with Stone’s skillful pen. A fine book, one of the best I’ve come aqross in a long time. The second of the two books is Robert Lewis Taylor’s biography of W. C. Fields (W. C. FIELDS: HIS hOLLIES AND FORTUNES). It is a compe tent, workmanship job' of recording the life of the master comedian. However, all through the book I kept thinking of the job Gene Fowler could have done with the material (incidentally the book is dedicated to Fowler). If you saw Fields in the revivals brought to the Rex recently, you will especially enjoy the book. Taylor tries to understand the complex per sonality that was Fields and attempts a faithful por trayal of it. It’s a good attempt, but to me, doesn’t quite ring the bell. A Peekaboo at Some Campuses Outside Oregon As spring term opened amid a finrry of sunshine and the usual registration confusion at Oregon, other campuses around the country seemed to be having their ups and downs too. Maybe it was the weather and maybe it was just things in general, but a look see at other institutions reveals that . . . University of Connecticut was in a muddle trying to decide whether Professor Herbert J. Phillips, ex pelled last year from the University of Washington for being a member of the Communist party, should he permitted to speak on the campus. Down hi Dixie, University of North Carolina, was having its troubles because Negro Pianist Hazel Scott (who conies to Oregon later this spring) re fused to perform before a segregated audience. Said Chancellor Robert B. House: “We follow the mores and customs . . . There is no change in our policy.” Said Miss Scott: “Separating Negro and white of fends some people.” She explained she had a per sonal rule against playing before such audiences. At Louisiana State University, things were get ting back to normal after the hottest student elec tion in years. On the Coast, University of California was still up in arms over the loyalty oath. And its little bro ther, UCLA, remained divided as to whether a liber al-minded student should be permitted to remain managing editor for a second term on the Daily Bruin. To the north in Seattle, NROTC cadets at the University of Washington received some encourage ment from the Navy department. A clause requiring cadets to give names and addresses of all persons known by them to be associated with subversive groups was deleted from the loyalty oath. Propon ents of the change called it “a singular triumph for liberal forces.” Only at the University of Mississippi did things seem entirely normal. Appearance of Tommy Dorsey and his orchestra had students dragging their best evening formals out of the mothballs—or the tuxes for-the-rent shop. Here at the L niversity there were no rows over segregation or triumphs for liberal forces, and even tommy Dorsey hadn t put in an appearance. But it will not be long before LSU, University of Wash ington, et al have company—for ASUO elections and Junior Weekend are right around the corner.—Tom King. SankotHone. Woden* A Sizeup of the Nurses in Berlin by Bab fyu+ih On the front page of the Emerald Thursday was a small picture which prac tically broke up my fraternity and is causing me to take cor respondence courses from Salem. It was under the WSSK story, and had no caption. When I first looked at it I de cided that it was too early in the morning. Later I looked at it again, while drinking coffee in ReneH's, and decided that it was still rather early. “What do you think this is a picture of?" I asked a tra ternitv brother. He was one of those who sleep and take vitamin pills, so I thought he might know. “It looks like a nurse out in front of some ruins in Berlin/’ We all looked at the nurse. She seemed to be looking at another lady who was sitting down on what seemed to be part of the ruins. Or maybe she was just awfully short. “You can see it’s a woman —she’s looking toward us— sort of over her shoulder.” The rest of the company could not see her looking to ward us. In fact, she seemed to be looking the other direc tion. If she’s looking toward us, •■'he lias hair all over her face,’’ someone said. At that point we divided into two schools : those who were all hot for the looking-over-her-shoul der theory, and the rest of us, "VfPlease turn to page three)