Repository: UIHistories Project: Board of Trustees Minutes - 1956 [PAGE 890]

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1955]

UNIVERSITY OF ILLINOIS

887

CURRICULUM IN PHYSICS (3) The University Senate recommends a new curriculum in the College of Liberal Arts and Sciences leading to the degree of Bachelor of Science in physics for students who plan to enter graduate study in physics or who wish to prepare themselves for government or industrial laboratory research positions. The curriculum specifies the courses essential to a strong foundation in physics and permits concentration in the first two years on basic courses which are prerequisite to advanced courses in physics and mathematics. In addition to meeting the standard requirements for admission, a student must rank in the upper half of his high school class. T o register in advanced physics and mathematics courses in this curriculum, a student must have a grade average of at least 3.5" in all subjects, exclusive of the basic courses in military science and physical education, and a combined grade average of at least 3.5 in all courses completed in physics and mathematics. A transfer student must have a corresponding record in the institution previously attended. The curriculum is designed for students who have had four years of high school mathematics, including trigonometry, and a year of chemistry. A student who can satisfy the college language requirement on entering has the advantage of being permitted to add sixteen hours of electives to his program, and a student who has had a year of high school biology will also have more freedom in the choice of electives. The complete outline of the curriculum is being filed with the Secretary of the Board for record. I concur.

On motion of Mr. Swain, this recommendation was approved.

PREMEDICAL. CURRICULUM (4) T h e University Senate recommends that the statement of the requirements in the premedical curriculum in the College of Liberal Arts and Sciences, as previously approved by the Board of Trustees, be amended by substituting the following paragraphs for the corresponding paragraphs in the present statement: Paragraph 3 to read: "At the end of each semester the scholastic averages of all students enrolled in the premedical curriculum are computed. Students who fail to maintain the required 3.5 minimum average are transferred to the general curriculum until such time as they may have brought their averages up to the minimum." Paragraph 5 to read: "Students transferring to the premedical curriculum in this college with advanced standing must have at least a 3.5 average computed in terms of the University's grading system." This change alters the present 375 scholastic average required for continuation in the premedical curriculum to 3.5 which is the minimum scholastic average required for admission to the College of Medicine. The present statement of requirements and the statement as amended by this action of the Senate are filed with the Secretary of the Board for record. I concur. O n m o t i o n of M r . N i c k e l l , t h i s r e c o m m e n d a t i o n w a s a p p r o v e d . C H A N G E IN R H E T O R I C R E Q U I R E M E N T (5) All students entering the University as freshmen directly from secondary schools are required to take a placement test in rhetoric. Those who fail to pass this test must make up the deficiency by tutoring, correspondence study, or by passing Freshman Remedial Rhetoric and Composition (Rhetoric 100), a noncredit course which meets three hours each week. A student who fails to pass the placement test or Rhetoric 100 by the beginning of his third semester must withdraw from the University until he does pass the test. The University Senate has recommended that beginning with the fall semester of 1960-61 Rhetoric 100 be discontinued. This will not affect the requirement of one year of rhetoric for graduation and all new freshmen will go directly into the regular first-semester, three-hour credit course, Rhetoric loi, unless they are excused from this course under the exemption program by passing the placement

1 This is the numerical equivalent of an average between B and C under the University'6 grading system, whereby A = 5, B — 4, C — 3, D =r 2, and E = 1.