Seminars Might Be Incorporated In Gen Ed Program, Says Wilcox

The Committee on General Education may consider using the freshman seminar program to diversify opportunities for fulfilling the new Gen Ed requirements.

"A clear mandate from the Faculty debate was to create a greater diversity in course offerings," Edward T. Wilcox, director of General Education, said yesterday. Though the way in which the seminars might fit into the Gen Ed program is undetermined as yet, Wilcox said they could help create this diversity.

Wilcox pointed out that the seminars' limited size would not prevent them from satisfying a Gen Ed requirement if the Committee decided their substance was appropriate to General Education.

The principle of the new program "is a diverse set of offerings that meet the criteria for General Education," he said. "Within this context, the form of instruction does not make much difference."

Wilcox pointed out that only a portion of the seminars could become art of the program. "A good many of them bear no relation to the Gen Ed requirement," he said. "Some of them are very narrow research projects."

The Committee has not yet discussed the seminars and their relation to Gen Ed, Wilcox said. He added that the seminar program might not undergo any changes until next year even if the Committee decided to make use of it.

Wilcox said he viewed Gen Ed courses offered by individual Houses as valuable additional sources of diversity under the program, even if they are severely limited in size. Winthrop House now gives Nat Sci 1, and has proposed a Soc Sci course to be limited to ten sophomores in the House.

If Gen Ed courses no longer have to be large-enrollment, full-year undertakings, Wilcox said, professors may become less reluctant to propose and organize them.