Faculty Supports Making Gen Ed Courses Optional

The Faculty yesterday approved the merger of the undergraduate and graduate committees for biochemistry. Several Faculty members, however, voiced the hope that the new committee would be made up of men from fields other than biology and chemistry.

The Committee for Undergraduate Concentration in Biochemical Sciences and the Committee for Higher Degrees in Biochemistry will merge into the committee on Biochemistry and Molecular Biology.

During the Faculty discussion, several members who hold appointments in both the GSAS and the Medical School noted that certain graduate areas other than biochemistry, such as biophysics and medical sciences, draw their students from the undergraduate program of biochemical sciences.

The professors hoped that undergraduates in this program would still be made aware of the opportunities available to them in these fields. This could be accomplished, they said, by appointing, as tutors and committee members, men from the Medical School or research biochemists from the various hospitals affiliated with Harvard.

These men were concerned that people in the medical school would continue to be consulted for the undergraduate program of Biochemical Sciences.

Others of the Faculty objected to the phrase "Molecular Biology" in the proposed name of the new committee. A molecular biologist works only with the chemistry of DNA and its associated proteins.

This term, the men felt, is too limited to apply to a committee on biochemistry, which will encompass many biochemical problems other than DNA.

President Pusey suggested that the Faculty consider only the motion for merger, and let the committee determine later the exact name.