English Dept. Will Add Survey Courses in '62

The English Department will triple the number of survey courses offered next year because more than half of the senior concentrators are "inadequately prepared" for their general examinations, according to W.J. Bate '39, chairman of the Department.

The Department will offer English 120, 130, 140b, 150, and 152. It has not done this since before World War II.

Bate said that students are neglecting the period surveys, choosing instead isolated studies of special topics. He pointed out that the Department might have to alter its concentration regulations to offset this neglect.

Possible remedies considered in two days of departmental meetings this week include stiffening the historical questions on the generals, or instituting rules which would openly require more period surveys. The most likely such rule would stipulate that all concentrators, whether Honors or non-Honors, make one quarter of their English course work period surveys.

Dept. to Offer English 10

By reinstating English 10, the Department's formal introductory course, Bate hopes to expose students to a variety of literary periods, as well as to perhaps a dozen different professors. At present, he said, because upperclassmen have had no historical introduction to the field, many do not even know which authors a course like English 130b--"English Literature from the Restoration to 1700"--would cover. He felt this was one reason students neglected such courses.

Students used to satisfy fully half of their concentration requirements with period surveys. Bate said, however, that the Department would rather not force this situation on undergraduates. He emphasized that "it only wishes that the choice of special topic courses be supplemental rather than a substitute" to the period surveys.

He said the Department would meet to discuss the problem aga'n in two months, after a detailed study of undergraduate course programs had been completed. It is already known that the 50 per cent of the Seniors inadequately prepared for their generals have taken an average of only two or three half-courses from the survey group.