Faculty Approves Increased Quota Of History and Lit. Concentrators

The Faculty voted yesterday to abolish the existing quota of concentrators in History and Literature. In the future, the Committees on History and Literature and on Educational Policy will fix an annual quota and they have set 85 as the limit for the class of 1958.

The flexible program was proposed by the History and Literature Committee in April on the grounds that changes in the size of the College had made the 24-year-old limit insufficient. Only 50 of the 70 candidates admitted under the old ruling were from Harvard.

The present quota of 85 is not permanent, and Kenneth S. Lynn '45, Chairman of the Board of Tutors in History and Literature, expected gradual expansion.

While the new ruling retains the principle of a limit on History and Literature concentrators, there will be no fixed ratio of Harvard to Radcliffe students: Lynn predicted a ratio of about 60 to 25 for '58.

Although all concentrators are still required to try for Honors, Lynn said that the emphasis on grades would decrease with the expanded quota. The old system placed undue emphasis on freshman midyear grades which were not indicative of intellectual potential, he explained.

The general expansion will probably require three new tutors in the next three years, Professor Myron P. Gilmore, Chairman of the Committee on History and Literature, said. It was assumed that additional funds for the new tutors would be granted, but no definite decision has been reached.

These new tutors will probably not mean still higher quotas for the classes of '59 and '60, however, since they will merely accommodate the 15 additional students from these classes, Gilmore explained. The size of the field will then depend upon the funds available, and University policy on expansion.