HPC to Examine Demand for New Nat Sci Courses

The Harvard Policy Committee is gauging student interest in several possible Nat Sci courses at the request of the Division of Engineering and Applied Sciences. The HPC is distributing questionaires, circulating petitions, and conducting interviews in several houses and Radcliffe dorms.

Overwhelming interest in Nat Sci 112, which brought some 150 students to the first meeting of a course designed for 30, encouraged the Division to propose outlines for several further general education offerings. Edward T. Wilcox, chairman of the General Education Committee, has been urging a wider course selection in this area.

The proposed new courses would assume some previous preparation, but the prerequisites would not be so demanding as those for the division's regular undergraduate offerings, according to F. Karl Willenbrock, Associate Dean of Engineering and Applied Physics.

The HPC is testing three course outlines for student interest at this time. One course would discuss the degradation of the environment, considering such topics as air and water pollution. Another would explore research in the physics of solids with attention to such relevant developments as transistors. The third would consider electrical phenomena, including the laser.

The Division is also considering a course on fluid mechanics, and the HPC may circulate new questionnaires to test student reaction to it.