History Head Not Opposed To Expansion

Limited expansion of the undergraduate body would not affect the academic standards of the History Department, David E. Owen, department chairman, said yesterday.

If the University provided enough money for adequate additions to the teaching staff and physical equipment, the professor of History thought that an increased enrollment of 25 percent in his department would be quite feasible. "For years the College has been constantly expanding," he said, "and I do not necessarily think we have reached the final limit yet."

Contradicts Beer

This statement is in contradiction to remarks made two weeks ago by Samuel H. Beer, chairman of the Department of Government. The professor of Government said he opposed any future expansion in the size of the undergraduate body.

Faculty members have used both "academic and sociological arguments against expansion in the College," Owen noted. Some have maintained that expansion would inevitably lower educational standards, while others have feared that a larger college would be too impersonal.

This second argument, Owen pointed out, does not have "much to do with actual academic effectiveness." He admitted, however, that expansion beyond 25 percent would affect the quality of instruction.

He emphasized that before expansion could take place on the undergraduate level, the graduate school would have to be enlarged. "There are still unemployed Ph.D.'s around here," he said, "but in the next few years there will be a definited shortage of qualified men unless more are trained than at present on the graduate level."