Departments Are Not Contemplating Earlier Deadline for Senior Theses

No major Harvard department except History is considering an earlier due date for honors theses.

Head tutors of eight major departments told the CRIMSON yesterday that they did Lot plan to change their deadlines.

Elliott Perkins '22, professor of History said Wednesday that the History Department may move up its April 1 due date by two to four weeks.

Some History tutors believe that students are often pressed for time in preparing for their general exams because of the short interval between their theses and the tests.

They also feel, according to Perkins, that an earlier deadline would force students to begin work earlier and not waste the month of October.

Mark W. Roskill, assistant professor of Fine Arts, mentioned a plan which went into effect last year in his department to resolve the conflict with generals. A senior submitting a thesis in Fine Arts does not take the regular generals. Instead, he is given an oral exam on the subject of his thesis.

The Social Relations Department employs the same scheme of thesis and orals. Kenneth J. Gergen, assistant professor of Social Psychology, said he though the system was "an excellent idea." The oral exam, he commented, "gives the student a much closer contact with a number of Faculty members who carefully review his work."

The Music Department, which has the latest deadline of any department (April 19), does not have any generals to compete for time with the thesis. James E. Haar '50, assistant professor of Music, said he does not believe an earlier deadline would force students to get more thesis work done in October.

"The natural undergraduate tendency is to let things go," said Haar.

Head tutors in Economics, Government, Social Studies, Classics, and Philosophy all said they had no plans to change their department deadlines.