In 1932 the English Department instituted a spelling class, presided over by Dr. John C. Hodges (who drew the short straw in the departmental decision event). Professors of English could send up to five students from each freshman English section for remedial spelling instruction. Dissatisfaction with students’ spelling was reinforced by an experiment performed by Dr. Roscoe Parker of the English Department, who gave his English 441 class (The Teaching of English in High Schools) a list of 15 words to spell, and out of the 28 students in the class, none spelled all the words correctly.