Faculty Passes Chem Plan, History and Lit Proposal

The Chemistry tutorial proposal yesterday passed through the Faculty and quietly became law. Raised as new business in the meeting, the plan went through without objections and without a vote.

A key feature of the program is the use of chemistry post-doctoral fellows as tutors. These fellows are available in large numbers as a result of recent increases in federal grants.

An informed source noted after the Faculty meeting that "there were rumblings and rumors of people saying they wished they had thought of using their post-doctorals in this way before." Physics, Biology, and Engineering and Applied Physics have large numbers of such fellows on campus.

Sophomore Non-credit Tutorial

The new chemistry tutorials begins in the Spring Term of the sophomore year. Honors Sophomores will be offered a non-credit course involving discussions with staff advisers about their research.

Juniors will be able to elect a new course, Chemistry 94, which is followed by Chemistry 95 in the senior year. The Chem 94-95 sequence, composing a full credit, will concern itself with "familiarizing the student with some pertinent literature, or actually carrying out laboratory work, as agreed between him and his tutor."

Will Write Thesis

The real experimental lab work begins in the senior year. Honors candidates will register for Chemistry 96, write a thesis, and carry on research in the lab of a post-doctoral fellow. The student's faculty adviser will choose his post-doctoral tutor, with an eye to matching similar interests. No fellow will have more than three tutees working with him.

Carroll M. Williams, chairman of the Biology Department, denied the possibility that Biology might make use of its post-doctoral fellows. "We have no intention of hiring new personnel for our program. We feel the best way of managing the tutorial is through our own department," he said. At present, formal tutorial is limited to 3 seniors in Biology 40.

The Physics Department could not be reached for comment.