The University will require a final examination for more than 500 students in Humanities 14ld and hilosophy 193, although most students entered the courses thinking the exams were to be optional.
President Pusey, acting in his capacity as Acting Dean of the Faculty, informed Paul J. Tillich, University Professor, last week that the request to make final exams optional in his two courses would have to be denied unless there were compelling reasons to grant it.
Previously it had been announced that a ten-page research paper could be substituted for the exam in both courses. Both the paper and the exam are now course requirements.
Pusey told Tillich that final examinations are usually required in courses as large as his. Tillich and his assistant, Paul A. Lee, Teaching Fellow in Theology, agreed with Pusey's ruling and decided that there were no great reasons to appeal the President's decision.
Lee said yesterday that the exam had in the past been optional in order to "put more emphasis on the paper as a research project." He emphasized, however, that he had told students that announcements on the status of the exam were tentative pending Pusey's decision.
In an attempt "to undercut some of the anxiety over the exam," Lee said that "at least one of the questions on the test will be given in advance." He added that the paper and the exam would be weighted about equally in the students' final grades.
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