Geography: Off the Map

The University has all but eliminated its Department of Geography by cancelling the appointments of three of the four instructors. This move is in direct contradiction to educational policies at Harvard, to the desperate need of the State Department for political geographers, and to the expansion of geography departments in most other American universities.

Geography, since its introduction in 1928, has been under the construed of the Geology Department. But because of its growing importance to the Social Sciences and the Regional Studies Program on Russia and China, it has become less of an exact science. A minority of the professors of Geology who are interested in science for the sake of since have, therefore, favored crippling economics that threaten to wine out the entire subject. The attitude appears to be blind to the aims of General Education, which call for an increase in courses that cut across departmental lines. It is also blind to the need of the Government for geographers in regional planning and foreign policy. And, by ignoring this need, the cut in the Geography Department conflicts with President Conant's numerous statements emphasizing the contribution education owes to society.

The enlargement of geography departments at the Universities of Chicago, California, and Wisconsin, to mention only a few, makes Harvard's move the more anachronous. Although it is improbable that the administration will reconsider its decision, a measure must be introduced whereby some remnant of the Department may be preserved. This, too, appears doubtful, however, for there remains little enticement in the way of advanced teaching and research to Professor Whittlesey, one of the great political geographers in the country. But if it is not a feeble hope to expect him to remain in a University which has virtually abolished his field, he should be persuaded to undertake a General Education course emphasizing the influence of geography on history, government, and economics. The University cannot afford to allow its study of geography, vitally important to understanding the nation's position as a world power, to die for departmental political or financial reasons.