234

231

Major McLendon asked if the question before the House was not actually to
vote on whether the Consolidated University would have a semester system or a
quarter system with Saturday classes? He further asked why was it necessary to
abolish State College's well established and well functioning quarter system with
Saturday classes in order to correct what the Executive Committee apparently felt
was a bad situation at Chapel Hill?

To these questions President Gray replied that up to a point the whole discus-
sion concerned itself with Saturday classes at Chapel Hill. He referred to a letter
to members of the Board written by him last December in which he pointed out that
Saturday classes should not be considered the whole issue in this problem of under-
graduate instruction and student life generally; that Saturday classes were a very
narrow segment of the whole problem of welfare, and to consider the thing in terms
only of Saturday classes or no Saturday classes would be a mistake; that operating
under the expressed desire of the Executive Committee that every effort be made
within the realm of practicability and general consistence with institutional require-
ments to have uniformity in the three institutions which are really a part of one
institution, the Faculty Council at Chapel Hill addressed itself to the question of how
to implement the directive of the Executive Committee with respect to Saturday
classes, and concerned itself not solely with the Saturday class issue, but with the
whole problem of undergraduate instruction. He pointed out, however, that the
view which came out of the Faculty Council was not a unanimous view.

✓ President Gray requested the Board to waive a technicality of the Code of
By-laws which deals with the communications to the Board of Trustees or the Execu-
tive Committee in order that the students might be heard from. The president of
the student body at Chapel Hill was present to speak for the students.
Mr. Pearsall moved that the technicality of the by-laws which prohibits their
appearance, without proper procedure, be suspended and that they be heard.

✓ In this connection, President Gray referred to a mimeographed document
distributed by the students, and stated that lest the members of the Board be mis-
lead by a statement in it, he wished to advise that the spokesman for the student
body had known for several days the Administration's position was in support of the
Executive Committee's action.

✓✓✓ Hamilton Horton, President of the Student Body, was invited to come forward
and he presented the following plea on behalf of the student body at Chapel Hill:

"Mr. Chairman, President Gray, members of the Board of Trustees:
Each one of you is due my most abject personal apology for having received
this (mimeographed statement). It can be explained by sheer ignorance on
our part, but it cannot be excused, of course. And I would also like to say
that I hope there is no feeling that we are trying to bring anyone here against
his will, or trying to misrepresent anything. The difficulty is that this was
printed November 24 and we didn't hear of a change in the stand of our Admin-
istration until just two weeks ago. I hope you will take note of that.