Ec Dept. May Permit Sophs To Take Ec 98

Several members of the Economics Department may urge that Ec 98, junior tutorial, be offered to sophomores, Carl Kaysen, Lucius N. Littauer Professor of Political Economy, said yesterday. The issue may be discussed when the department meets today.

Another economics professor has suggested that a revision in the tutorial system might eventually enable students to write theses in their junior year.

Kaysen, chairman of the department's Committee on Undergraduate Education, said his panel is "thinking about giving sophomores who have taken Ec 1 as freshmen a chance to take what is now called junior tutorial."

He said the proposal is aimed at students who are sure about their field of concentration and want to get into it as early as possible.

Even if the economics department approves, Kaysen stressed, the full Faculty would have to assent before the plan could be implemented.

"We are very conscious of the Faculty's decision to have some kind of junior tutorial," he added. "We would make provision for juniors who had already taken the course." The present sophomore tutorial, he said, would still be kept open for those who did not make an early decision to concentrate in economics.

Ec. 98 currently meets four hours a week. Two hours are spent in lecture groups of about 30; the other two are devoted to tutorial sessions with about six people.

The professor who predicted junior-year theses also hinted that such a change might be adopted by other departments. Such a revision, he said, would release seniors from the burden of thesis writing and permit them to take the courses "they never had time for."