Criticizing departmental recommendations as a criterion for admittance to the Graduate School of Arts and Sciences, Dean Chase emphasizes the importance of a candidate's undergraduate record in his annual report to the President, released yesterday.

"A distinguished undergraduate record," Mr. Chase writes, "furnishes the best evidence of ability to pursue graduate study with profit. The high percentage of failure among men admitted on the recommendation of their department should make us stricter in our entrance requirements."

While 46.2 per cent of the men admitted by the latter method and 32 per cent of the men admitted through "good" college records have failed, all of the 27 men, holding summa cum laude degrees, have had satisfactory records, and only eight per cent of those with magna cum laude degrees have met disaster.

Contrary to the College, the number of students in History, Government, and Economics is on the decline, with only 219 men enrolled, in comparison to the 278 of last year.