Squeeze Play

From the time when the faculty adopted it a decade ago, General Education has been peculiarly vulnerable to pressures from every department which wished to make concentration easier or more thorough. The English department's current attempt to annex Humanities 6 is the latest case in an almost unending war between the interdepartmental nature of General Education and the highly departmentalized form of Harvard College.

The difficulties arose last year when Hum 6 had more applicants than it could admit under its 200 limit, principally because a large number of potential English concentrators advised to take the course by members of ithe department swelled the ranks of would-be students. Recognizing that he could not refuse admission to English concentrators without hurting their prospects in the field, Professor Brower was forced to give sophomores concentrating in English preference in admission.

The result, of course, was that non-concentrators found it difficult if not impossible to get into the course, and the responsibility for this situation is conspicuously the English Department's, and not Professor Brower's. But justice demands that the use of English concentration as a criterion for admission should cease, whether or not it will cause some slight damage to those English students who are excluded.

The English Department's use of Hum 6 is a combination of convenience (for it is thus unnecessary to give courses in criticism for potential concentrators) and salesmanship, since English is a more attractive major when one does not have to "waste" a year on General Education. In reality, however, this policy perverts the fundamental philosophy of General Education and works considerable hardships on non-concentrators.

Either the enrollment limit of Hum 6 should be raised (which would be unfortunate, since the instructor should have a chance to make this decision without outside pressure), or the Department should stop encouraging students to take Hum 6, or a similar course, required of concentrators, should be created within the department. In any case, Professor Brower should stop giving concentrators special treatment. Only by such action will he be able to force members of the English department to recognize that the General Education program was not created for their own convenience.