Chase Picks Committees for Faculty Council Scheme; Proposals Discussed

The Faculty Council's recommendations of cross-field concentrations will see their first practical application today, as Dean Chase appoints four committees to deal with the down-to-brass-tacks problems of the Council proposal. The plan has already met its first criticism, in the light of its function under the University system, as the opinions of four professors were submitted yesterday.

One of the committees that the Dean is to select will be chosen from the examining boards of several departments. These men will have the duty of hashing over the plans for concentrations that may be presented by members of the faculty, and of submitting these with recommendations for or against to the department concerned.

Names Area Committees

Coming into a more basic contact with the features of the area concentrations themselves, the Dean will appoint a committee from the faculty to investigate the desirability of general concentrations in each area: natural sciences, social sciences and the humanities.

Opinions coming from the scientific departments seemed to convey the general opinion that the new plan of cross-field and area concentrations will not create much change in the present setup. Both Professor Frederick A. Saunders, Chairman of the Physics Department, and Professor Frederick L. Hisaw, Chairman of the Biology Department, were of the opinion that the scientific fields are already broad enough to satisfy the requirements of practically any student interested in a scientific education.

Saunders Belittles Need

"There is no great urgency in any of the sciences for inter-departmental concentration," declared Professor Saunders. He went on to say that the proposals of the Faculty Council were actually an extension of the existing system. They allow students to go ahead with cross-field studies without submitting their plans for the individual faculty consideration necessary at present.

Tracing through the various departments that would be included in the area of the natural sciences, he showed the immediate connection that Physics seems to already have with them. He allowed for the possible exception of meteorology. Then turning to a more general discussion of the plan, he said that it was mainly to provide for timely subjects of study.

Hisaw's Field Already Broad

Professor Hisaw explained that as far as Biology is concerned, "It is already a diversified field." He showed that it includes the fields of Botany, Zoology, and Physiology, and that it has very close and necessary contacts with the other scientific departments.

From the field of Economics comes the feeling that the entire problem is far too vast to be solved by a more proposal of cross-field concentration. Harold H. Burbank, Chairman of the Department of Economics and Wells Professor of Political Economy, who has worked with the tutorial system for twenty-five years, said that the teaching staff is not large enough to follow through on the plan.

Wild Commends Progressive Step

John D. Wild, assistant professor of Philosophy, who has been studying the general problems of university education in its role as a preserver of democracy, said he felt that the faculty's sounding out the prospects of unifying education is a healthy sign. However, he considered the present proposal of the Faculty Council as being embryonic and merely a step in the right direction.

As far as the details of the plan are concerned, Wild pointed out that while some of the cross-field concentrations are jumbled and hypothetical at present, a few of the groups of study, such as the classical tradition field, really present something of worth to the student