SR_DPI_DNE_Special_Subject_File_B5F1_Durham_NC_College_Negroes_018

(15)

ought to be able to devote six to nine hours each week instructing in the department
or deparments in which he had special training. A teaching faculty
of fifteen members should be able to handle the complete offerings leading
to the three degrees.

III. Attention has been called to the large number of classes whose
enrollment is so small as to make the cost of instruction well night prohibitive.
For economical reasons, then, - to say nothing of the instructional and educational
advantages that result from pupil enthusiasm and pupil contributions in larger
classes - it is strongly believed that no class should be taught that has fewer
than five students, and that the better minimum would be seven. As long as there
are fewer than 300 students, and perhaps for a larger number than that, the
requirement of a minimum of seven students for any class would make it necessary
to do one of three things, or perhaps a combination of them:

(1) Reduce the Number of Hours Required for a Major. This would obviate
the necessity of a large number of subjects in the junior and senior years that
would be offered solely, or primarily, to care for the major interests of the individual
student. As now outlined in your catalog a major is defined as, "24
Hrs. Major or 18 Hrs. Major with 6 Hrs. in a field closely allied. The 24 Hr.
presupposes 12 Hr. in the same field during Freshman and Sophomore years." (See
pages 28 and 29 of your catalog.) Credit for a Major is one of the requirements
for a degree. Under your requirements, for a student to major he would need to
take two subjects in his major field through his junior and senior years. In
our judgment a total of 30 semester hours could represent a major, without doing
any violence to educational practice, and without jeopardizing in any way the
intellectual interests of the student.