As part of the regular curriculum, a summer reading plan is included in the Yale education plan adopted by the Eli faculty last spring. Believed to be unique in American higher education, the summer reading plan was further explained by Yale's Dean William C. DeVane last week through the Yale News Digest.

"Designed to provide means for covering more ground than would ordinarily be possible, the reading program will supplement each of the three undergraduate curricula proposed last spring by the Course of Study Committee and accepted by the faculty," the News Digest reports.

". . . Regardless of the program which the student may pursue, he will be required to read eight classics during his summer vacation for the first two years. The first book list prepared by the college includes works from the classics of literature, history, biography, science, and social science. The following summer, the student will be required to read from a list prepared by the department of his major. In the summer following his junior year the student can at the discretion of his department, read in his major field towards his departmental examination, or work on his senior essay or project."

Students will be examined at the end of their summer reading and, according to the News Digest article, "failure will be regarded as being just as serious as it is during the rest of the year."