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About Yale Alumni Magazine | View Entire Issue (Dec. 17, 1896)
Votume VI. No. 12 NEW SYSTEM OF CUTS. How it Has Workedin the Freshman Class—Its Merits. The new system of cuts and marks described in the Weekly a short time ago, which has been introduced with the class of 1900, this Fall, has now been in operation long enough, so that to a limited degree, its merits can be discussed. According to the older system six cuts in each term were al- lowed the students with the idea, that they should be taken for illness and other minor causes for absence. How- ever, by degrees, excuses for sickness came to be granted with considerable fenjeney, and the six regular cuts were taken generally for the convenience or pleasure of a student. This result was of course strictly at variance with the object of the rule, and this year the plan has been tried of allowing no cuts at all without a positive excuSe. At present, therefore, in the Fresh- man class, no man is entirely excused for any absence of less than a week, it being considered that any illness of shorter duration is not of sufficient consequence to warrant his absence from the class room. Inasmuch as absence from work is a distinct loss to the student, and those whose at- tendance is regular deserve to be cred- ited with a higher mark, the penalty of a deduction of one point from the stand of the subject in question is made upon such absence. Any student who is excusably absent for a week or more can maintain his stand by mak- ing up his lost work in the usual man- ner. It is generally considered hard upon the students that they should loSe from their stand for absences of short- er duration than a week, no matter what is the cause, for it really does often occur that a student is prevent- ed from attending class room exercises for a day or two by an illness, not se- rious in its consequences, but yet of a nature to incapacitate him for any work. While this rule may bear hard upon some whose stand is not suffi- ciently raised above the standard re- quired, yet its general effects will cer- tainly be in the direction of producing more regular attendance of the stu- dents who most need to give attention to their work, and of preventing the superficial granting of sick excuses for- minor causes. AS a matter of fact the attendance in the Freshman class so far this term has been more regular than ever be- fore and the number of warnings given out has been less. Those men who in any case would maintain a moderately high stand will not be seriously affected by this rule. It is only those, who are _ seeking scholastic honors, or those who make it their highest aim merely to remain in College, that are apt to find fault with the new system, for in each of these cases a@ small difference in the stand is productive of the greatest consequences, Thus a high-stand man, because he has missed half a dozen recitations during the term, owing very probably to legitimate causes, may in this manner just miss gaining the ap- pointment sought for, and those stu- dents, who are at the lowest limit, may find the loss of a few points in their stand sufficient to drop them into the class below. The main principles of the rule are Clearly in the right di- rection and the attendance of the Poor- er scholars is of much greater import- NEW HAVEN, CONN., THURSDAY, DECEMBER 17, 1896. Price Tren CENTS. SAAN SSS Sess LWA WameReD i SS ss Teens <a SATE | | spemeree ean aS VSL Ata: Ss = Sos Res SSeS SS SS aoe SURES E eve a. = St Serct Ve NN + Saas = A LOS Ceweeeumentl Sa SALT SEES NRRRABEEE: SANANRRAR TA {Sus aawewmvar ABB Va ss’ = 5 WRLBBLEALAULe meanEEaa: . = TE a $055.55 eee Beene = SS Ss SS 35 ——— SS — FS WBBVAL SAA = —— WSS s AS AAS AS eS ‘See ory a M4) Sees ‘ u - NE EN HH <— / =| ZN See A oo = a4 rf 4 (YY AW WE Same // ij TAY MAY oe THE TERM ENDS. ance than that of the high-stand men. Up to this point the rule has been found by the Faculty to work with great success, and it is very probable, although no official statement has yet been made, that this plan will be ad- hered to in all following classes. —_—_—_—_4______ Kiskimnetas Club. A meeting of the men in the Uni- versity who prepared for College at the Kiskimnetas School in Pennsylva- nia was held on November 18 and a club was formed. Officers for the year were elected as follows: President, Charles S. Evans, ’97; Secretary and Treasurer, Samuel A. Gilmore, ’99. A banquet was held at Heublein’s in No- vember in honor of Professor A. W. Wilson of the school. ifs j ‘Wale Consolidated Team.” It has been announced that a com- pany of football players, to be known as the Yale Consolidated’ Football Team, will make a tour of the South during the Christmas. holidays. At present writing it is not known that any member of this University will be on the team. It is quite sure that no student who has been one of the Uni- versity Eleven will go on the trip. Despite the fact that the trip is under the direction of Mr. Sanford of Water- bury, a former Yale player, the en- terprise is strongly opposed by the regular football leaders and by the students generally, who feel that any use of the word “Yale” by any other than the regularly constituted teams 8 of the University, hurts Yale and in- jures the cause of legitimate athletics. These enterprises assume a mercantile pkase and verge on professionalism, at least in appearance. Besides that, the indiscriminate nature of the con- tests does not help, but hurts, the game of football. Many people— probably the majority of the specta- tors—do not have any other impres- Sion than that the regular Yale Elev- en is playing, and the inference is fair, from the wide extent of. these trips, ' that the business of athletics is being much overdone at the New Haven in- stitution. , ——_4______—. As the WEEKLY goes to press (Wednes- day noon) negotiations between Yale and Harvard remain in an unfinished condition and there is no ground for any definite prediction.
