Course Conflicts

To the Editors of the CRIMSON:

In sorting out courses for next year I find the perennial problem of conflicting examination groups repeating itself. I do not know what malicious principle lurks beneath the process of scheduling . . .

I can only speak for the snags encountered in choosing courses for my own field, which is American History and Literature. The current academic year offers undergraduates one full course and six half courses in American literature. Two of these half courses are primarily for graduates; two more, English 160 and English 170b, fall in the same examination period in the Spring term. Pickings were slim this year in American literature.

The catalogue for 1950-51 offers, in the same field, one full course and eight half courses. Of these, six half courses are primarily for graduates; of these six, English 271 and English 272 fall in the same Fall examination group, and English 262 and English 275 fall in the same Spring examination group. These four courses, in effect reduced to two courses, are important for the senior concentrator in American History and Literature.

I am not sure if this situation exists in other fields, but I suspect it does to some extent. I hate to feel that I am going to graduate without hearing a good portion of the outstanding men in my field because of an administrative complication. Ray W. Karrass '51