MIT Committee Suggests Curriculum Modification

A special faculty committee of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology recommended extensive changes in the M.I.T. undergraduate curriculum in a report presented Wednesday.

The Committee on Curriculum Planning (CCCP) has been studying M.I.T. undergraduate education for the past two years under the chairmanship of Jerrold R. Zacharias, professor of Physics.

Its proposals will be voted on next fall and, if adopted, could go into effect in the fall of 1965.

The CCCP felt that its most important recommendation was for a permanent and substantial program of planning and research on undergraduate education. It urged the Institute to devote a significantly greater portion of its resources to this project. "Most universities do not recognize as much as they might the high order of intellectual effort such planning demands," the committee said.

Other parts of the report bear directly on the subject requirements for freshmen and sophomores. The CCCP suggested revision of current rules in order to give undergraduates earlier elective opportunities in the areas of science and engineering.

At present M.I.T. students must take two years of a specific sequence in physics and mathematics and one year of a specific sequence in chemistry--the so-called "core curriculum."

The CCCP recommended instead that the core consist of one year of a physics sequence and math sequence plus one half-year of chemistry. The student would then add to this by selecting "science area electives" and "elective laboratories."

More Electives

Electives would be available not only in the core subjects but also in biology and engineering. The effect of these changes would be to give students the chance to branch into areas of individual interest much earlier in the undergraduate program.

To allow further flexibility, the committee suggested that M.I.T. departments offer modified sequences of their own subjects to students who do not want a full professional course. It also recommended that the present requirement of a research thesis from nearly all candidates for the bachelor's degree be made a department option.