PLANS ANNOUNCED FOR ECONOMICS AND HISTORY RESPITES

The following statements regarding the Reading Period were made for the Crimson by Professor H. H. Burbank '15, chairman of the Economics Department, and Professor W. S. Ferguson, chairman of the History Department.

The statement of Professor Burbank for the department of Economics follows:

The Reading Period will be observed by the Economics Department in all courses other than Economics A, the introductory course, which will be conducted as usual, except that two instead of three section meetings will be held each week. There will be a small amount of additional reading assigned in this course.

None of the Economics courses are regularly open to Freshmen. For this reason only the introductory course is being excepted from the Reading Period requirements, but professors of graduate courses may, at their discretion, meet their classes during the Reading Period.

The Economics Department is making every effort to hold reading assignments within reasonable bounds, in general assigning not more than 50 percent more than is ordinarily given during the usual conduct of courses.

All of the tutors will be supplied with lists of the reading assigned to their students, and it is expected that the tutor will serve as a final check upon the reasonableness of the total assignments. Elective studies are so diverse that unusual combinations of courses may give a student a total amount of reading that is neither reasonable nor desirable.

The tutorial reading which will be assigned in addition to the course assignments will be regulated to the individual programs of the students. When exceptionally heavy and long reading has been assigned by course instructors, the tutors will lighten their assignments.

So far as possible, the tutorial reading will be made a means of throwing light upon the course assignments, and of giving the student a unified view of the diverse subjects on which he will be reading. Essays on economic subjects are especially effective for this purpose.

While it will be the general policy on the Economics department to put the students absolutely upon their own resources during the Reading Period, a sufficient number of professors and tutors will be available for conferences, so that the work of no student should be hampered because of unforeseen difficulties.

In addition to the books which will be placed on the shelves of Widener Library for use during the Reading Period, the Economics Department has arranged with the Cooperative Society to have the less expensive volumes available for those who wish to have their own copies.

The statement of Professor Ferguson for the History department follows:

The History Department has been interested in the Reading Period plan from its inception, and is adopting the plan in all of its middle group courses, and most of its graduate courses.

We have been attracted by the feature of the Reading Period which may not appear to students as primarily important, namely, that the Reading Period places Harvard, and Harvard alone, among the universities of America, on a par with the great universities of the Old World in the time which instructors will have free for literary and scientific work.

In common with other departments we have been arranging a systematic program of reading for all courses which will observe the Reading Period. In general the reading assigned will represent an increase of about 50 per-cent over the normal assignments.

The attempt has been made, so far as practicable, to confine the reading to a few works of great intrinsic value. Lists of the assignments have been for two weeks in the possession of the tutors, who are in this way enabled to direct the work of their students in preparation for the Reading Period.

Tutorial reading will be assigned during the Reading Period, and a knowledge of the ground covered in this way will be tested by the tutors at the opening of the second half-year. It is our intention that the tutors should introduce the needed element of elasticity in adjusting the work of their students so that each student will have a unified program with neither too much nor too little reading.

History 1, and History B are the only courses that will not be affected by the Reading Period, but certain graduate courses which are in the form of seminars will meet at intervals, at the discretion of the instructors