Tutors in History Support Most of New Thesis Plans

The board of tutors in History yesterday came a step closer to recommending sweeping changes in the Department's tutorial, thesis, and honors programs. In a general meeting vote on a four/point plan, the tutors favored three of proposals and rejected the fourth. Eight department tutors had drafted the plan after a series of small conferences with members of the board.

However, the board will not present any of the proposals to the Senior Faculty the Department immediately. Instead, it will hold another meeting April 26 for more discussions. The Senior Faculty's approval is necessary before the general Faculty can take up the changes.

A slim majority favored a proposal to drop the present non/credit sophomore tutorial and expand the present junior tutorial into a two-year, more specialized course.

By what one tutor called "a three to one majority," the board backed a plan to give a senior a choice between writing a standard thesis and taking a seminar with a shorter essay.

The tutors strongly favored stiffening the present honors requirements.

They overwhelmingly opposed, however, a plan to change the date theses are due from April 1 to March 1.

In the long debate over the first point, the tutors generally agreed that some change should be made in the present sophomore tutorial. "Sophomore tutorial is hopeless as it is now," a tutor said, explaining that beginning concentrators are unprepared to cope with the advanced study of history.

The main problem with an expansion of the more-specialized junior tutorial is that concentrators would have to choose a limited field of study in the beginning of their sophomore year, Several tutors complained that picking a narrow area is too difficult a task for entering concentrators.