Monro Suggests Looser Sophomore Programs

Dean Monro yesterday suggested that the College might eventually "loosen up" the sophomore curriculum by extending the freshman seminar program and by opening independent study to sophomores.

Monro made the suggestion at this year's first meeting of the Harvard Policy Committee. At Monro's urging, the committee plans to make a study this fall of the sophomore year and its problems.

In an interview later yesterday, however, Monro said that his ideas for altering the sophomore curriculum were not formal proposals and that any consideration of them by the Committee on Educational Policy (CEP) was at least a year away. His request to the HPC, Monro said, was aimed at supplementing information and ideas on the sophomore year now being gathered by George Goethais '43, assistant dean of the College.

Fewer on Dean's List

Monro has long been concerned with the sophomore year. Annually in his report, he has cited statistics showing that proportionally fewer sophomores make Dean's list and more leave the College. "I persist in my feeling," he concluded in last year's report, "that there are serious gaps in our understanding of sophomores and their needs, and serious naws in our educational effort on their behalf."

Yesterday he commented that the sophomore curriculum appeared too rigid. Many students, he said, spend the year just finishing up their language and general education requirements and starting their concentration requirements. "A guy with a four course load has very few options," he said.

In contrast, Monro said he was impressed with the results of the freshmen seminar program. "The longer I live with the freshman seminars, the more I feel they freshen up the college experience for many people," he said.

"As a notion, why don't we use it for the second year?" Monro asked. He also mentioned the possibility of making the independent study program -- now restricted to juniors and seniors-- also open to sophomores.

Monro said he hoped that the HPC could, among other things, provide him with information on how popular these ideas were with undergraduates.

The HPC, one of two branches of Harvard's undergraduate government, deals primarily with educational policy issues. It has recently undertaken a series of "educational audits" of different Harvard departments. The first, on the Government department, was released last spring, and the second, on the Biology department, is expected to be released next week.