SOPHOMORE PROBLEMS

To the Editors of the CRIMSON:

The recent CRIMSON article on the House Seminars indicates the extent to which that program has succeeded, but demonstrates that the House Seminars cannot alone fill the need for this type of activity. This need is most striking on the sophomore level.

In some of the Freshman Seminars, students are given a one course reduction. The time thus freed can be devoted to seminar section meetings and to outside reading which is often done under the guidance of the seminar section leader.

Profiting from this program, the enthusiastic freshman may look forward to independent study as an Honors junior or senior (in a '98" or "99" course), but is puzzled by the lack of any such opportunity in the sophomore year. The House Seminars, by their very nature, are not comparable to either the Freshman Seminars or the Honors Courses. Credit can not be granted: there can be no reduction of courses in a pressing schedule.

There is no necessity for a strict four course sophomore program. What is called for is a sophomore program of credit tutorial or possibly a credit sophomore seminar. Such plans would be feasible, of course, only to the extent of the availability of faculty time, but if a professor has a few hours a week free, and there are students who seek guidance, is there any reason not to encourage their working together by institution of such programs? The professor's guidance could be given either individually or in small sections. Following the plan of the Freshman Seminars, these programs would not be given within departments, but would be free to cross department lines if necessary. Sophomores with interests in either humanities, natural sciences, or social sciences, who feel the pinch of course restrictions would thus have some practical means of supplementing their lecture and classroom work with a supervised plan of independent study. Phillip G. Schrag 64