Repository: UIHistories Project: Board of Trustees Minutes - 1944 [PAGE 1041]

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io38

BOARD OF TRUSTEES

2. The Commission recommends that the selection of graduate students be placed upon a basis which will distribute appointments more equitably among the several departments of the graduate school, and that the means of selection be such as to give more nearly reliable indexes of proper performance of the persons selected as graduate students. An example of such an instrumentality is the recently developed Graduate Record Examinations. 3. T h e Commission recommends that the College of Liberal Arts and Sciences: a. Define clearly what the purposes of its educational program are b. Adapt its curricula better to the needs of that group of students who drop out of the college before securing any degree c. Strengthen the General Division by removing its present handicaps in requirements d. Make the General Division an educational service unit for students in the several professional schools enrolling freshmen e. Set up curricula organized on the basis of the needs of the students as individuals and as members of a significantly changing environment. 4. The Commission recommends that the undergraduate schools, other than the College of Liberal Arts and Sciences, review their respective curricula in order to insure for each school: a. Those studies most pertinently important in that field at the present time b. A broad inclusive base extending beyond the specialized field, on which the curricula of special studies should be built. 5. The Commission recommends that the University as a whole and each of its colleges, especially on the undergraduate level, make quality of teaching a major objective of attention; that faculties become acquainted with the literature now available reporting studies and experiments on teaching in other universities; that they examine with care their own practices in the light of these reports, and institute studies and experiments of their own; and that these and similar measures be taken for the purpose of finding out how effective the teaching is which they are giving in their respective colleges and fields, and how to improve that teaching. The University already has personnel and organization facilities which will make it possible to go far in this matter if these are used properly, as some accomplishments already achieved in this field show that they can be. 6. The Commission recommends that opportunity be given to persons in the lower faculty ranks to participate in formal discus-

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