Image provided by: University of Oregon Libraries; Eugene, OR
About Oregon daily emerald. (Eugene, Or.) 1920-2012 | View Entire Issue (Jan. 6, 1972)
Undergraduates, that is Credit exams allow students to skip class By JOYCE BRIDGES Of the Emerald Credit exams allow students to skip class. Students interested in speeding their way through college or gaining more flexibility in their programs now have a tool for doing so: credit by examination. The new system involves two methods of obtaining credit by exam. The first is an internal University plan by which undergraduates may acquire course credit by passing exams established by the department or school offering the course. Any University course numbered 100 to 499, with the exception of 401 to 410, may be passed by exam, unless the department or school has specifically exempted the course. The second method involves the use of nationally standardized exams developed by experts in several fields. These College Level Examination Program (CLEP) exams cover general and specific subject areas. The University’s internal credit-by exam system has been in operation since 1956. but it has not been used extensively. Barry Siegel, Associate Dean of the College of Liberal Arts, believes this may have resulted from students not being aware of the possibilities for obtaining credit in this manner. “We have now added the possibility of CLEP exams. Students can consult with departments about appropriate ways to study for the exams during vacations and, through their independent study, acquire a significant amount of credit.” CLEP general exams in social science, history, the natural sciences and humanities have been approved by the University to carry nine hours credit each toward the University’s general group requirements. Students who have com pleted 90 hours or six quarter terms of college work, however, are not eligible for the CLEP general exams. CLEP subject exams are in American history, analysis and interpretation of literature, biology, college algebra, trigonometry, introductory calculus, English literature, general chemistry, geology, introductory business law, in troductory economics, money and banking and sociology. “There is an obvious economic savings if students take advantage of the system,” Siegel says. A student who passes the three general exams gets 27 hours of credit— that’s close to two terms of work. “We have also simplified the rules a little for the internal credit examinations. For example, a student who has failed a course can now obtain credit for it by passing the exam. This wasn’t possible before” Only one attempt to acquire credit by exam in each course is allowed. Exams not passed will not be recorded on a student's academic record. Siegel says the system does not allow for duplication of credit. Students can not gain credit again for courses already passed or for courses more elementary than those for which the student has already been given credit. “The test requires students to deal with new situations using old data they have learned elsewhere.” A great potential value of the CLEP exams, Siegel says, is for persons not yet enrolled in the University. “Since the exams are available to anyone, high school students or older persons can combine independent study and CLEP^acquired credit later with work at the University,” The University charges $5 per credit hour for the internal credit examinations. CLEP exam fees are $15 for one generai exam and $25 for two or more. The fee for CLEP subject exams is $15 each. The Counseling Center will administer the CLEP tests the third week of each month beginning in February. Arrangements for the test must be made and approved by the Registrar one month in advance. Examination by individual faculty members or departments must be ap proved by the department and the Registrar’s office one month in advance of the exam date. Ecology info center opens The University Environmental Studies Center, now manned and open for business in 636 PLC, hopes to offer dual service to citizens and students—service as a resource center for needed information and service as a depository center for already researched information, ac cording to director Stanton Cook. Cook. The Center was established last October upon University President Robert Clark’s ap proval of a committee recom mendation. Clark named Cook, associate professor of biology, director at that time but the Center was only open during Cook’s office hours because no secretary had been hired. Sandy Herbert, who holds a BA from Antioch College in Yellowsprings, Ohio, was hired in December for the secretarial position so the Center is now open Monday through Friday, 8 a.m. to noon and 1 to 5 p.m. Cook said the Center will now begin accumulating reference materials and will again serve as a resource center for students in his “Man and His Environment” class as well as other ecology classes on campus. He wants to encourage people who write ecology papers and assemble bibliographies to donate them to the Center upon completion. The term projects done by his students are kept on file at the Center. Ms. Herbert sees a similar “coordinating” role for the Center. She has already begun collecting bibliographies from the various libraries on campus. As well as being equipped with bibliographical information the office also has various pamphlets from ecology groups. She said the library has some of the same material but that it is often hard to find there. Ms. Herbert is also assembling lists of books, periodicals, pamphlets and catalogs for use by public school teachers in terested in teaching ecology to their classes. Other goals for the Center include a calendar with the various events, meetings and hearings of environmental groups, an “expertise file” with names of experts available as speakers and researchers, and the offering of pre-degree jobs for students interested in en vironmental studies. Ultimately Cook sees the Center staffed with three full time people: director, assistant director and information officer. Along with these three he suggested there could be people who would take a year off from other work to do research for ecology. Both Cook and Ms. Herbert, however, have reservations about how quickly such plans can be implemented. Cook seems pleased with the response so far and said they were getting “a lot of collaboration from depart ments.” The Center is refraining from using dittos and campus mail to get out information and requests. Instead “we are getting word out through people,” he concluded. f acuity Senate^. By their 28-0 vote, the body voted to recommend continuance of the present policy governing con ditions of faculty meetings. The motion came as a result of a committee report by an ad hoc Faculty Senate committee. Speech professor Bower Aly, who introduced the motion prompting the committee’s study last June, said the faculty has an obligation to maintain decorum in their meetings. He cited instances during controversial meetings, attended by many students, when faculty members have been spat upon and the meetings “degenerated.” “Some of the bad actors are not students on this campus but regardless this has to be remedied,” Aly said. Aly said he would accept the committee’s report, which reinforces present policy, but warned that there may be trouble in the future when con troversial issues come up. Most of the 3'i hour meeting was concerned with a policy on end-of-term variable credit. Beverly Fagot, chairman of the Academic Requirements Committee, reported that it is the policy of some professors to reduce or increase credit hours for their courses after the eight week deadline for doing so. She said this policy, which is not University-wide, is practiced in the depart ments of fine arts, landscape architecture and architecture. Ms. Fagot said her committee has prepared a report recommending the discontinuance of end-of term variable credit for the following reasons: It creates a problem in reporting hours to outside agencies such as Veteran* A^'ilrs and draft boards. (For example, if a student registers for 12 hours, full-time status, but a professor drops one hour, he falls below full time status, thereby losing half of veterans payments, for example or a scholarship. Ms Fagot said also, there have been two cases where students did not graduate on time because of the policy.) —The system is contrary to State Board of Higher Education policy which says a partial refund for lost hours will not be given unless the situation is beyond the students control. (The policy says persons taking less than 12 hours pay less fees.) —It creates extensive paper work-in two years the number of students with these changes rose from 77 to 188. Several persons from the Architecture and Allied Arts School testified in favor of end-of term variable credit. Robert Harris, dean of the school, said the policy is used on creative work done by students. He said a student may elect to put in more studio work on one project than others and the school must have some record of where the student is putting his energies. Bob Kruger, a student in the school, added that often a student may find he will have to do more creative work on a project than he originaly thought After more discussion, the Senate voted to accept a committee proposal maintaining end-of term variable credit in the three departments, with the condition professors inform students of possible credit hour changes Faculty files issue stymies State Board A committee of the State Board of Higher Education ended its discussion on faculty records in a deadlock Wednesday morning in Portland. The board’s Academic Affairs Committee, at a one-day meeting at Portland State University, experienced several differences of opinion on whether certain file material should be closed to faculty members. The proposed rules are being considered in order to standardize faculty record keeping procedures at state system campuses. It was recommended that a proposed “confidential” file of solicited statements on the job performance and academic ability of faculty members remain optional. Conflicting opinions immediately arose with several opponents feeling each faculty member should be allowed access to his own file. The confidential file would include statements obtained from supervisors, colleagues on and off their respective campuses Possibly, students might also be asked to contribute to the files. The substance, though not the source, of the statements would have to be provided upon request of the faculty member involved. In addition, if an immediate superior administrative officer was evaluating the faculty member, the completed evauluation would have to be fully discussed with the faculty member at the time of the evaluation. The full State Board of Higher Education is scheduled to act on the proposed rules at its next meeting ,7an. 24 in Portland. Fact deficit restricts ASUO Senate action Though a financial guillotine hangs over the neck of the ASUO budget, lack of concrete information prevented the ASUO Senate from anything but routine action in its final meeting of 1971. Underrealized incidental fees from smaller than expected enrollment in the fall quarter cast doubt upon the accuracy of the ASUO budget agreed upon last, spring. According to Iain More, the ASUO Executive branch is waiting for the winter enrollment figures before considering any alteration in the budget. Also, an expected decision from the Office of Emergency Preparedness (OEP) on the University's Athletic Department funding has not yet come through. If the decision goes against the University, it must refund all money paid by students for game attendance this year, and the ASUO will have to cut its budget on all programs. Ac cording to More, the University will appeal such a decision through district court but is currently engaged in working out a program of compliance to price-freeze standards. In other business, the Inter-Institutional Union of Students of the State System of Higher Education (IUSOSSHE) changed its name by constitutional revision to the Inter-institutional Union of Students (IUS). According to Vice President Larry Salmony, the organization no longer attempts to speak for all state system students but has become a source of information about what the State Board of Higher Education is doing. It will also serve as a mechanism for the selection of students for state committees and councils. Students interested in serving in an advisory position on the State Board of Higher Education should see Rod Chandler, head of IUS at the University. The Senate also voted against funding an International Seminar Coalition, and voted to oppose the federal government’s proposed welfare bill. A change in line itemization for the Migrant Labor Project, changing the director’s salary to matching funds for six work-study positions, was also approved by the Senate.
