Senate Document #13

                        APC Document #11


The Academic Policies Committee recommends that the Faculty Senate
approve the following request:


________________________________________________________________

MEMORANDUM

TO:       Dr. Philip Walker, Chairman, Academic Policies Committee

FROM:     M. Blowers, University Librarian

SUBJECT:  Request for grading change for Bibliography I.



     On 9 November 1976, the Academic Policies Committee approved
Mr. Whitman's request that the four-slot grading system be replaced
by S/U grading for the course, Bibliography I.  I am requesting
that the Academic Policies Committee consider a recommendation,
unanimously supported by the present library faculty, that S/U
grading be replaced with the A,B,C,D,F grading system.  S/U grading
offers an inadequate number of choices for the instructor and is
detrimental to many students in Bibliography I.  It has an adverse
effect on initiative and fails to properly reward students
according to their success or failure in achieving the course
objectives.

     Justification given by Mr. Whitman for S/U grading was as
follows:  "The work in Bibliography involves memorization and
learning of techniques to be used in the utilization of periodical
guides, reference works and the card catalogue . . ."  There is
"very little content that is of a scholarly nature," and "no
opportunity to test the initiative or intuitive powers of the
students."

     The content and objectives of Bibliography I do not presently
support the above rationale.  During the coming weeks the library
faculty will be completely restructuring the course, making this
justification even less appropriate.

     Bibliography I seeks to inculcate an understanding of the
methods by which libraries control and make available the memory of
civilization.  It endeavors to expose students to the basic
resources of scholarship, and through a laboratory experience in
research to provide them with the skill to select from the proper
portion of society's memory those materials pertinent to the
problem at hand.

     This endeavor does involve learning of technique and search
skills, but entails minimal memorization.  It engages students'
intellectual skills at the heart of the scholarly enterprise and
touches on the very knowledge and skills which the liberal arts
college exists to provide.  We need the full range of symbols to
satisfactorily evaluate the performance of our students in such a
course.



(Passed Faculty Senate March 13, 1978.)