Professor Deplores Low Science Requirements

The College is admitting people who are "totally illiterate since they have no knowledge of science or math--the language of our time," George B. Kistiakowsky, Abbott and James Lawrence Professor of Chemistry, charged yesterday.

Kistiakowsky criticized Harvard's lack of admissions prerequisites in the sciences or in mathematics. Earlier this week, Wilbur J. Bender, Dean of Admissions and Scholarships, commented that such requirements would keep away many able students.

"I fail to see what students would be kept out by such admission requirements," Howard Mumford Jones, professor of English, commented. Jones asserted that "any student intelligent enough to come to Harvard should be able to pass such tests."

Speaking from "an academic viewpoint," Carl Kaysen, professor of Economics, called for co-operation with state universities in setting up any additional prerequisites. "This is an oligopoly market," he stated, "and we must think what our competitors will do."

Kaysen, like Bender, emphasized that Harvard alone cannot bring a change in secondary school educational policies. He conceded that mathematics standards might be too low, but agreed that any change must be done by large, widelyknown colleges working together.

Additional admissions requirements might lead "to a serious decline in the quality of the Harvard student body," Dean Bender stated. He claimed that any change in policy must come with co-operation, since by acting alone, Harvard will lose many high-quality students.

I. Bernard Cohen, professor of the History of Science, added that changed requirements could be fulfilled during the freshman year.

"Why should we deny matriculation to students who don't know match?" Cohen asked. He agreed with Bender's feeling that "many able students" would be kept away by added requirements.