Frlday. February 7

SCARLET AND BLACK

 

Four Grinnellians patiently. if skepticaily. wait their turns to pass inspec on at the Treas-
urer's desk in last Monday‘s registration ritual. The two young ladies might bemulling that
familiar phrase. "The actual cost of instruction is almost double the above figure . . ."

 

Third Class of 'liberul'luniors
Receive 1M 'Baptism By Fire

By Karen Adkinson

Yesterday and the day be
fore, Grinnell juniors recoil/ed
their baptism by fire, the Jun-
ior Liberal Arts Exam.

This institution is a fairly re-
cent innovation at Grinnell;
this year’s class is only the
third to have taken the exam.

Like the interim session, the
exam grew out of a faculty
study of curriculum. Prelimi-
nary work was done by faculty
groups with consideration and
final approval by the entire
faculty. Since then, several fac-
ulty committees have worked
year round developing the test,
the concepts, the syllabus and
bibliographies.

Associate Dean Waldo Walk.
er, who is in charge of the
exam, outlined the reasoning
behind the institution of the
exam: “One a! the principles
of a liberal arts institution is
that an education that cuts
across disciplines is a valu-
able asset to one that exper-

iences it, If this principle
holds, and a liberal education

h as tangible benefits, it

should follow that we might
well develop a device that
would indicate to the student
.his degree of success or fail-
ure in attaining the major
objectives of a liberal educa-
tion."

Besides measuring the at-
tainment of a liberal education,
the JLA exam is designed to
aid the student in synthesizing
the work of his Various courses
in an atmosphere of independ-
ent study. to offer him a diag-
nostic tool for analyzing his
strength and weaknesses, as
well as revealing to some ex-
tent the success of the college’s
effort in providing a liberal ed-
ucation. ‘

Although other schools have
had tests on the order of the
HA, Grinnell’s form is unique
and has sparked inquiries irom
other Midwest Conference col«
leges about the ILA expe-
rience.

The exam consists of an ob-

jective Area Test and two
mornings of essay responses
to concept questions. The in<
clusion of the nationally ad
ministered Area Test serves
to measure Grinnell students
against another norm and
also may aid the college in
assessing its role in the edu-
cation of its 'students. The
concept section previously
covered “The Nature of
Man” and “Evidence and

Evaluation,” but was
changed this year.

“The exam has been, and still
is, in an experimental stage,
’and. revisions have been found
necessary,” said Walker. “The
faculty narrowed the concepts
to the'more specific topics of
the Aristotelian, Newtonian,
and D a r w i n i a n conceptual
schemes of order because we
believed it too difficult to pre-
pare a satisfactory examina
tion around such broad con-
cepts as used in the last two
years." .

This year in preparation for
the exams, students received
bibliographies and a syllabus
pertaining to the concepts chos-
en. The primary bibliography
was intended to provide a start—
ing point and common fund of
information for all students;
the second bibliography, which
was more extensive, was one
from which students might se-
lect further readings in the
fields which most interested
them. ,

“This year the tests were
less oriented toward the syl-
labus than previously, In
fact, syllabus is too broad a
term for the document dis-
tributed to juniors this year;
it is more oi an introduction
to the concepts,” explained
Walker. ,

Grading of the tests is done
by the faculty Test papers are
passed out to faculty groups of
three to four members. Stan-
dards {or the answers are
available for consideration of
graders. Each paper is read
and graded independently by at

 

least three of the group. If the
grades disagree, the members
discuss the paper together, but
Walker revealed, “There has
been less variability in grading
than I had expeCted,"

Ranking will he done ac-
cording 'to three categories,
high pass, pass, and no credit.
Papers in the first two cate-
gories will be awarded four
hours of Credit. The test,
however, will not be a Pre-
requisite for graduation ei-
ther this year or for several
more years.

George A, Drake, 29, a grad-
uate and former faculty mem—
ber of Grinnell, has been ap—

‘ pointed assistant professor of

history at Colorado College, ac-
cording to an announcement
made there last week, Drake
will also serve
as director 0
the college’
Selected Stu-
dent Program.
G r a d u a
ing first in his
class at G rin-
nell in 1956,
Drake is cur-
rentlyra Rhodes
scholar at OX-
ford University
in England, He

Page Five

Former Grinnellian to Teach History
Al Colorado College Beginning in Fall

will assume his new duties in
Colorado next September.

A native oi Springfield, Moi,
Drake spent the 1960-61 aca~
demic year teaching modern
European and British history
at Grinnell.

An authority on British his-
tory, Drake has earned de~
grees from the University of
Chicago as well as from Grin-
nell and. Oxford. He will receive
his Ph.D from Chicago this
summer, and is currently writ
ing his doctoral dissertation on
“some Contemporary Puritan
Histories of the Puritan Revolu—
Lion.”

Second semester- classes will
begin Monday, Feb. 10 at' 3
am.

 

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