Crowding Is Acute in Introductory Gen Ed Courses, Murdock Admits

Kenneth B. Murdock '15, professor of English and chairman of the Committee on General Education, yesterday conceded that the problem of freshman enrollment in elementary General Education courses was "probably more acute this year" than in the past.

Several freshman advisers had complained Monday that their advisees' programs were being disrupted when they had to change Gen. Ed. courses because of enrollment limitations.

While the situation is regrettable, Murdock said, it is not "very" serious, since a freshman can wait until next year to take a course he particularly wants. "We don't like limitations on course enrollments," he added, but plans for hiring section men, he said, were made some time in advance, and could not be exact.

Another complaint that the advisors had made was against courses having enrollment limitations which were not listed in the course catalog. Investigation yesterday disclosed that this argument holds only against Humanities 3, where a limit had to be imposed when one section man was drafted during the summer.

An explanation for the problem of excess enrollments, especially marked in humanities and social science courses, was offered by John F. Freeman '51, head section man in Social Sciences 4. An unusually high number of freshmen, he said, were taking both the humanities and social sciences courses in their first year.