Monro Suggests Theses, Tutorial for Freshmen

Tutorials, theses, and more free time in the Freshman year might combat students' overconcern with grades and make the first year of college more profitable, Dean Monro suggested last night.

Speaking at the opening meeting of the Harvard-Columbia Conference on Education, Monro emphasized that he was "merely offering possibilities that we in the Faculty have been thinking about." He asked the delegates, who represented over 20 Eastern schools, to discuss his suggestions, saying "we will be very interested in your reactions."

In his speech Monro was chiefly concerned with what he called "vocationalism." With the growth in the number of students who plan to go to graduate school, he claimed, students are becoming more worried about grades and vocational courses. "Liberal education is taking a back seat," he said, "and more students are refraining from extracurricular activities."

Monro then suggested that a thesis or tutorial might help stimulate students' intellectual curiosity early in college. In the question period which followed the speech, Monro also said that a "seminar program" in the Freshman year might possibly give the student more of a feeling of participation in intellectual activity than 50-minute prepared lectures.

Considering adjustment problems in the first year of college, Monro characterized the Freshman as "spinning madly with one toe on the ground." Reducing the large work load on Freshmen, he said, might give them more time to solve their own problems. He suggested that the need for free time is greater among Freshman than among upperclassmen.