Graduate Schools to Speed Up Programs With Summer Sessions

To help graduate students get their degrees before they are snatched into the armed services, several groups in the University Administration are now considering proposals, including plans for special summer sessions, to speed up the graduate school programs.

The need for temporary changes is particularly felt in the Law School and the Graduate School of Arts and Sciences, which have been hardest hit by the emergency. The enrollment in the Law School dropped this fall by 443 men, while the Graduate School enrollment fell off by 220 men.

At a meeting, scheduled for last night but postponed until next week, the Law School Faculty will consider and perhaps vote on alternative plans for shortening and intensifying its curriculum.

Suggest Winter Degrees

One of the plans which they will consider calls for a summer session of all second year men, in order that they may receive their degrees in the winter instead of the end of their third years.

In the Graduate School of Arts and Sciences, the period of study required for an M.A. degree may be reduced by introducing two summer school sessions of six weeks each, instead of the present single six week stint.

Now discussing various means for streamlining the graduate schools are several Faculty, groups including the standing Committee on Educational Policy of the Faculty of Arts and Sciences and another committe which represents all of the departments of the University.

Besides these, the Faculty of Arts and Sciences at their November 4 meeting requested President Conant to name a special committee "to study and report on the thory and practice of graduate education in Harvard University, with special reference to the Faculty of Arts and Sciences." The members of the committee will probably be announced at the Faculty meeting, December 2.