History Dept. Delays Vote On Revisions

The full Faculty of the History Department decided yesterday to hold off decision for at least a week on a drastic revision of its present tutorial thesis, and honors program.

The proposals the Faculty considered were presented by the board of tutors, who approved them nearly unamimously at a meeting on Tuesday.

One of the proposals the tutors backed Tuesday was a new sophomore tutorial plan. The plan was a revision of a program that caused dissension at a general tutors' meeting April 19.

It differs sharply from the earlier proposal to scrap the present sophomore tutorial and expand junior tutorial into a two-year, more specialized program.

Two other proposals--stiffening honors requirements and providing a seminar as an alternative to writing a senior thesis-- were approved by a large majority of the tutors at the April 19 meeting.

The plan includes these changes:

The Department would drop the sophomore more essay. It would offer a more specialized historiography course to replace its present survey of the works of great historians. Students would concentrate one of six areas each term--America, Medieval Europe, Early Modern Europe, or a combination of Latin America, Asia, and Africa. They would explore in depth writings about a his- torical event or period within the area.

* Tutors could choose whether their students would study specialized topics for one or two terms. If the tutor decides on one term, he would devote the other to a modified survey of great historians, similar to the present sophomore tutorial. If he decides on two terms, the two periods chosen would have to be from different areas of the six that are offered.

* Sophomore tutorial would become a half-credit course, as it is in History and Literature and in Social Studies. The Department would then require six and one-half credits for graduation