Repository: UIHistories Project: Board of Trustees Minutes - 1942 [PAGE 322]

EXTRACTED TEXT FROM PAGE:

1941]

UNIVERSITY OF ILLINOIS

319

STUDENTS' USE OF ENGLISH (14) Last year as a result of discussions in meetings of the Board of Trustees the Senate Committee on Educational Policy was asked to make a study and to submit recommendations for improving the standard of English used by the undergraduate student body both in speaking and in writing. This Committee has been at work for practically a year, and at the last meeting of the University Senate (June 2) it submitted a report on the student use of English, and the Senate approved this report for transmission to the Board of Trustees with the following recommendations: 1. T h e Senate elect a standing Committee on Student English to consist of seven members. The duties of this Committee shall be to study the operation of the regulations relating to English and to bring in such further recommendations as may seem desirable for the improvement of the use of English by students. 2. During the years 1941-1942 and 1942-1943 all students whose rating in the freshman placement test is below passing be required to register in sections of Rhetoric I which meet four times a week instead of three. They shall receive, however, only the usual three credits. 3. For the same period all students receiving the grade of D in the first semester of Rhetoric I, whether in the regular part of the course or in the four-hour part, be required to register in sections of Rhetoric 2 meeting four times a week. They shall likewise receive three credits. 4. After September 1, 1941, and continuing indefinitely thereafter all students who receive a grade of D in Rhetoric 2 be required to take an extra onesemester course carrying three credit hours. 5. All transfer students whose grade at another institution for their last semester in required rhetoric (equivalent to Rhetoric 2) is D (or the equivalent) be required to take the third semester course or pass a proficiency examination. 6. Beginning September 1, 1943, no student who fails to pass the placement test in rhetoric, given at the beginning of each semester, be allowed to register in Rhetoric 1. His schedule of courses shall be reduced by three credit hours in order to permit him to make up this deficiency, which may be removed by tutoring, correspondence study, or otherwise. A three-hour non-credit elective course shall be offered each semester in which students may register on payment of a $10.00 fee, to prepare themselves to pass the placement test. A student who fails to pass the placement test by the beginning of his third semester must withdraw from the University until he does pass it. T h e time of initiating the practice suggested in No. 6 is set two years hence in order to give ample warning to the high schools, and to provide them with full information about the standards in English which we expect from their graduates. It is believed that the cost of the course should be borne mainly by the students. T o guard against possible mistakes in grading the placement test, provision should be made for transferring any properly qualified student from the non-credit course to Rhetoric I within three weeks after the beginning of the semester, and returning his fee. If Recommendation No. 6 is adopted, it is recommended that the procedures set up in Nos. 2 and 3 go out of effect on September I, 1943. 7. AH other procedures contained in the questionnaire sent to the faculty be referred to the Committee on Student English for study: specifically, general proficiency examinations, the establishment of upperclass remedial courses, the improvement of speech, the establishment of a writing clinic and a writing laboratory, the publication of a University manual of style, and the publication of a statement that a certain standard of English is required for graduation. It is not meant, however, that the Committee on Student English must confine itself to these procedures; it should consider the subject in the broadest way. I concur in these recommendations.

On motion of Mr. Jensen, these recommendations were approved as presented.