MONDAY, SEPTEMBER 9, 1968
THE RIDGERUNNER
PAGE 3
Traditional Grades Junked
Come To Middle Earth
With its stimulating atmosphere,
Middle Earth Coffee House, located just
off the campus on Broadvray, functions
as a convenient place for students and
faculty to congregate, discuss and
grow.
Set up by the local churches for the
use of A-B students, the Coffee House
N.
is attractive, equiped with a kitchen
and available for meetings, parties
(non-alcoholic), mixers, rush activi
ties and the like.
Middle Earth is available any time
for club or organization use. Anyone
wishing to >«se the facilities see John
Bernhardt for a key.
Bernhardt, who has invested much time
and energy in Middle Earth, hopes to
arrange a regular schedule of entertain
ment. Anyone interested in being in
charge of a committee for that purpose,
or anyone having suggestions for pro
grams contact Bernhardt.
Middle Earth is regularly open Friday
and Saturday evenings from 8 o'clock
to 1 o'clock; on Sunday from 7 o’clock
to 11 o’clock; and Wedensday from 7
o’clock to 11 o’clock.
Figures Give Picture
The breakneck pace set at Asheville-
Biltmore has begun. In fact, students
are coming off the starting blocks so
fast that the admissions office has
yet to catch up.
Of the initial 500 applications for
1968*s Fall Term, only 300 were ultima
tely el'L'gible for admission. Dr. Ben
Spangler, Director of Admissions, ad
mits that final tabulation, of the
freshman enrollment is not yet final.
Available is the over-all enrollment,
an all time high of 755,
Scholarships have enabled many stu
dents to join the innovative A-B com
munity life. Private organizations
contributed $23,675 to outstanding
students, according to Ed Harris, the
Director of Financial Aid. A total of
$12,025 was given to 25 upperclassmen.
To the same number of freshmen went
the sum of $11,650. Six Honor Scholar
ships totalling $1,600 were presented
to upperclassmen and $3,200 was allot
ted in Honor Scholarships to 11 fresh
men.
There are several dominant features
of this year’s Freshman Class. Most
important to the Administration are
their SAT scores which are significant
ly higher than the scores of last
year’s newcomers. The class of ’72
would appear to be better prepared than
any preceding class.
Out of 19 states’, exclusive of North
Carolina, ranging from New York and
Massachussetts to Michigan and Kansas
to Texas and California, A-B has drawn
its 755 students. Two foreign coun
tries, Nigeria and Jeursalem, are
also represented by members of the
student body
Copies of the 1968 Images, the A-B
literary magazine, are on sale in the
Bookstore.
Approximately 200 copies will be sold
at 50 cents each. Any student who was
enrolled during the 1967-68 school year
and did not receive his copy of the mag
azine may obtain one free from the new
editor, Elizabeth Markgraf. Students
enrolled during the Summer Term are not
eligible for a free copy.
Proceeds from the sale wil^ be divi
ded equally between SGA and Images,
Brunswick, Me, (I,P,) Bowdoin College
has abolished its traditbional A through
E letter grading system and adopted a
new marking procedure involving only
four grades. The new system replaces
the familiar system of letter grades
A, i, C, D, and E and their accompany
ing pluses and minuses with a four gracfe
plan: High Honors, Honors, Pass and
Fail,
Dr, A, Leroy Greason, Jr,, Dean of the
College, said neither a student's aver
age nor his class standing will be com
puted any longer under the new plan and
eliminated will be *’tne misleaaing re
presentation of averages as evidence of
ability, and the grade consciousness it
seembed to produce,”
The Faculty Recording Committee, which
was responsible for developing and re
commending the new system stated in a
report, "grades of some type were nec
essary in order for students to keep
check on themselves, in order for the
College to distinguish its outstanding
students on the one hand and those who
were over their depth on the other, and
in order for a graduate school to ap
praise demonstrated academic ability,
"It is actually a system with educa
tional objectives of its own," Dean
Greason said. He explained that "in
stead of grades as rewards or punish#-
ments, the grade is really played down
under the new system in an effort to en-
courage students to concentrate on the
subject and to avoid disrupting compar
isons of small differences in grades,"
He pointed out the new plan is in
tended to provide the necessary insights
DURING
AFTER
Registration is always such fun, if
you spell fun H-E-L-L.
into the academic successes of students
without distorting the total picture.
Dean Greason explained that the old
system merely substituted a letter for
a number and that letter was translated
back into a number again in order to
determine an academic average for the
student. "And as in all translations,"
he said, "the meaning suffers."
The class standing of students was
computed on the basis of these academ
ic averages, he said. As an explana
tion, Dean Greason noted that a differ
ence of only four points can separate
the man in the bottom of the top third
of his class from the man at the top
of the bottom third, "and yet whether
a man was in to top or bottom third of
his class appeared to be a significant
distinction."
Amplifying this point further, Dean
Greason reported "that within ttfis re
gion where there is not much difference
between successive averages, the shift
in the total grade average produced by
the addition of a plus or a minus to a
simple grade could shift^a man as much
as six places in the rank order of the
class."
Under the new system a student in
order to attain Dean’s List status must
receive Honors or High Honors in three
quarters of his courses, and there can
be no failures.
In order to graduate cum laude, three
quarters of a student’s grades for four
years must be Honors or High Honors.
To graduate magna cum laude, cum laude
requirements must be attained with at
least one quarter High Honors, plus one
Honor for each Pass. All of a stu
dent’s grades mus€ be Honors with at
least half High Honors for summa cum
laude distinction.
BSU Forms On Campus
A Baptist Student Union chapter is
being organized on campus by the Rev,
Kay Huggins who believes' that religious
exposure is a vital component of a lib
eral arts education and feels that a
campus should offer a certain amount of
religious flavoring to its students.
Although the organization is spon
sored by the Baptist Church, interested
students of all faiths are encouraged
to participate.
Once organizei;! the BSU will meet once
a month for devotions, speakers and
films. In an effort to relate academe-
ics and religion, Mr. Huggins also
hopes the BSU can sponsorbi-weekly or
monthly dormitory discussions on topics
such as "The New Morality" and "Science
vs. Religion", Short weekly devotion
al services are also being considered,
Huggins would like members from the
A-B chapter to participate in an Octo
ber retreat with the Western Carolina
University organization and to be re
presented at the State BSU Convention
to be held in Ashevilld in November.
So far at least 20 students have
expressed an interest in establishing a
BSU on campus, and any others wishing
to participate should contact Huggins,
Currently serving as the Associate
Pastor at Beverly Hills Baptist Church,
Huggins did his undergraduate work at
Wake Forest University and is a gradu
ate of Southern Baptist Theological
Seminary in Louisville, Ken, As a
Chaplin for A-B students, he is avail
able for counseling.