&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)