JFK Institute Alters Form Of Seminars

The Kennedy School's Institute of Politics has reshaped its program of non-credit discussion groups to give students more voice in organizing the seminars.

Instead of offering a prearranged series of discussion groups, as it did last year, the Institute will poll undergraduates to discover what seminar subjects interest them.

The Institute will then attempt to find leaders for the groups and will arrange planning sessions for leaders and students to discuss the organization of each seminar.

Some of the seminars may be led wholly by students, Ernest R. May, professor of History and chairman of the Institute's Committee on Foreign Programs, said yesterday.

May explained that the Institute was writing more student participation into the program to keep the informal groups from turning into more formal "half-academic courses."

The Institute will distribute interest questionnaries and a list of suggested topics tonight in House dining halls.

May said that students could suggest other topics in addition to those the Institute supplies.

The 22 suggested topics lean heavily toward problems of local politics, including some subjects that deal specifically with Cambridge. The topics were selected from those suggested by faculty members, students and Institute associates, May said.