Freshman Classes Will Get Joint Instruction

Combined Harvard-Radcliffe instruction in elementary courses became a sure thing yesterday when the Board of Overseers approved the measure. It will take effect next year.

Extension of joint instruction from the upperclass level, where it is now in effect, to the rest of the College's courses was first recommended by vote of the Faculty of Arts and Sciences January 10. It was then approved by the Harvard Corporation, the Radcliffe Trustees, and finally by the Overseers.

Not all elementary courses will definitely adopt the coeducational method, however. Each department will recommend the courses that it thinks will lend themselves to joint instruction. The Committee on Educational Policy will make the final decision.

Roots in Past

Joint instruction for upperclass courses was begun in 1943 as a wartime economy measure and was made permanent after the war. Harvard Faculty members have taught at Radcliffe since its founding in 1879, but until the coming of joint instruction the professors had to give all their lectures twice.

Under the new joint system elementary lecture courses will be mixed, while sectioned courses that are now taught separately will remain so, a survey of several departments indicated last night.

Government 1 will mix ladies with men in lectures, but will retain separate sections for each sex, according to Arthur N. Holcombe '06, Eaton Professor of the Science of Government and co-chairman of the course.

The Mathematics Department hopes to avoid joint instruction, since the same number of sections would be required as under the present system, Professor Lars V. Ahlfors, chairman of the Department, said.

Biology and Chemistry hope to adopt joint instruction in both lecture and laboratory meetings of their elementary courses, according to the chairmen of these departments.