Soc Rel Combinations

Dual major programs carry a lot of prestige in the College. Joint Fields like History and Literature or Social Studies are selective and solid Honors programs. Equally prestigious are individual Combined Majors. Philosophy and Government or Linguistics and Classics have an undeniable sonorous dignity.

Since the Spring of 1961, the Social Relations Department has been running a third kind of dual major in its "Interdisciplinary Concentration." In theory, the program allows a concentrator to combine Soc Rel with outside work in any Department in the College. People have put together Soc Rel and Fine Arts, Soc Rel and Middle Eastern Studies, Soc Rel and English.

According to head tutor George Goethals, the goal of the special concentration is "to make the Department more responsive to the emerging needs of individual intellectual development, to let a student 'tailor make' his major."

The structure of the Interdisciplinary Concentration differs considerably from that of other dual majors. In the Combined Majors and the Joint Fields, the administrative responsibility is shared by the Departments involved. For Soc Rel's special concentration, the relationship with the allied field is unofficial; the Soc Rel Department administers the entire scheme. The eight people in the program are listed as Soc Rel majors and the allied Department has no responsibility for the combination.

Thus, the Rules Relating to College Studies does not contradict itself when it states that "the Department of Economics will accept no concentrators in combined fields" and elsewhere says in regard to Soc Rel that "some students may want to focus their work on a particular topic or theme that requires considerable work in a related field. For example, the study of social problems in underdeveloped countries might call for substantial work in Economics....Students wishing to pursue an interdisciplinary tutorial of this kind will be required to take five full courses in Social Relations and two full courses, directly related to their interdisciplinary goal, outside the Department." A person who wants to combine Soc Rel and Economics comes in the back door of the Economics Department, takes two full courses, and leaves for the tutorial which he hopes will integrate the course work from both fields.

To get into the Interdisciplinary Concentration, the applicant has to convince the Board of Tutors that he has a workable academic program. This means (1) submitting to the tutors a petition which includes a detailed outline of course work leading to a manageable thesis; (2) the name of some tutor in the University willing to accept the student and qualified to direct his work, and (3) his previous academic record. The Soc Rel tutors do not like to consider the special concentration as elitist; is is "not better, only different." But they still want candidates in Group III or above.

It is curious that a Department which deals with everything from ethology to bureaucracy fails to stipulate concentration and distribution requirements for Honors candidates. But some specificity is needed in concentration. One reason for the success of the interdisciplinary venture is that it forces the student to choose a specific aspect of Soc Rel and apply it to a specific aspect of a related field. For example, a Radcliffe senior in Soc Rel and Middle Eastern Studies centered her work around social psychology in the Social Relations Department and on Egypt in Middle Eastern Studies. She is writing her thesis on the social psychological aspects of the Egyptian revolution of 1952.

The program still leaves sufficient room for appealing Gen Ed courses, since the seven courses required for concentration are only one more than is needed for regular Honors.