934 



SCIENCE 



[N. S. Vol. XXXVII. No. 964 



Dr. George E. MacLean, president of the 

 committee from its establishment in 1906 until 

 1912, was present by special invitation. The 

 National Association of State Universities 

 and the Association of Colleges and Prepara- 

 tory Schools of the Southern States were not 

 represented at the conference. The meeting 

 was called by Vice-president Wilson Farrand, 

 who presided at both the morning and the 

 afternoon sessions. 



A sub-committee reported the results of an 

 investigation of the use of the terms " honor- 

 able dismissal " and " statement of record," 

 which it had made by individual conference 

 and by means of a questionnaire sent to eighty 

 colleges and universities. This report stated 

 that there was a general agreement among the 

 colleges and universities as to the desirability 

 of a standardization of these phrases, as to the 

 acceptance of a student's freedom to continue 

 in the institution issuing the transfer papers 

 as the criterion for the granting of such papers, 

 and as to the great advantage of entire frank- 

 ness of statement in the issuance of them. 

 The report contained also a resolution defining 

 the proper use of these terms which, after 

 slight modification, was adopted in the follow- 

 ing form: 



Besolved, That the term " honorable dismissal" 

 should be used to refer to conduct and character 

 only, and that honorable dismissal should never 

 be given unless the student's standing as to con- 

 duct and character is such as to entitle him to 

 continuance in the institution granting the dis- 

 missal. Furthermore, there should in every in- 

 stance be given, in the statement of honorable dis- 

 missal, full mention of any probation, suspension 

 or other temporary restriction imposed for bad 

 conduct, the period of "which restriction is not over 

 Tvhen the papers of dismissal are issued. 



That the term ' ' statement of record ' ' should be 

 used to refer to the recorded results of a student's 

 work in the classroom, and that this statement 

 should in every instance contain all the important 

 facts pertaining to the student's admission, classi- 

 fication and scholarship. In particular, no partial 

 or incomplete classroom record (for example, with 

 failures omitted) should ever be given without 

 clear evidence that it is partial or incomplete; if 

 the student 's scholarship has been such as to pre- 



vent his continuance in the institution issuing the 

 statement of record or to render him sub,ject to 

 any probation, suspension or other temporary re- 

 striction, the period of which is not closed at the 

 date of the record, a plain statement of any and 

 all such facts should be included; and such infor- 

 mation should be given as will make clear the 

 system of grades employed, the number of exer- 

 cises per week devoted to each course, etc. 



The same sub-committee presented a review 

 of some of the difiiculties found in the appli- 

 cation of the definition of the unit adopted by 

 the committee at its meeting of October 9, 

 1909, and proposed a resolution providing for 

 the addition of a paragraph to the explanatory 

 statement then formulated. This resolution 

 was adopted so that the entire definition of the 

 unit now stands as follows : 



A unit represents a year 's study in any subject 

 in a secondary school, constituting approximately 

 a quarter of a full year 's work. 



This statement is designed to afford a standard 

 of measurement for the work done in secondary 

 schools. It takes the four-year high-school course 

 as a basis, and assumes that the length of the 

 school year is from thirty-six to forty weeks, that 

 a period is from forty to sixty minutes in length, 

 and that the study is pursued for four or five 

 periods a week; but, under ordinary circum- 

 stances, a satisfactory year's work in any subject 

 can not be accomplished in less than one hundred 

 and twenty sixty-minute hours or their equivalent. 

 Schools organized on any other than a four-year 

 basis can, nevertheless, estimate their work in 

 terms of this unit. 



A four-year secondary school curriculum should 

 be regarded as representing not more than sixteen 

 units of work. 



An ambiguity in the interpretation of the 

 definition of the admission Latin requirement 

 announced by the Commission on College En- 

 trance Requirements in Latin in October, 

 1909, having been brought to the attention of 

 the committee, it was decided to send com- 

 munications to the chairman of that Com- 

 mission, to the American Philological Associa- 

 tion, and to the College Entrance Examina- 

 tion Board asking that steps be taken to re- 

 move the difiiculty by an authoritative pro- 

 nouncement on the subject. 



