The Faculty of Arts and Sciences has again announced that Seniors who are candidates for honors will not be required to take hour exams in courses within their fields of concentration, "provided the department...decides to adopt that ruling." Invariably, confusion has resulted from the vagueness of this last clause. Because various departments have refused to commit themselves definitely, choosing rather to leave the matter up to the discretion of individual professors in each course, Seniors have cut exams unintentionally, taken others not required, and in general failed to derive proper benefit from their exemption.

Both this fatuous dodging of responsibility and the perplexity arising from it are equally inexcusable. They make it impossible for a student to ascertain officially and certainly whether he is required to take an hour exam or not. To give the present situation its logical remedy, each department not only must come to a definite decision, but must apply that decision to every course and every Senior within its field.