History Grad Students Meet With Professors, Ask Program Changes

A committee of graduate students in History met with six History professors on Tuesday to discuss student proposals for revising graduate studies in the department.

The students proposed:

* A student-Faculty standing committee to deal with any future questions of revising the program of graduate education in History.

* Revision of the financial aid program in History.

* Due process of review for students who are asked to leave the department.

* The right of every graduate student to teach in the department for at least one of the five years he is a student here.

* A History Common Room.

The meeting did not lead to any immediate changes, a member of the six-man student committee said afterwards. Students and Faculty representatives have agreed to meet again on January 13, to decide on specific changes which they will then present to separate student and faculty meetings for ratification.

H. Stuart Hughes, chairman of the History department, appointed the faculty committee in November to hear student grievances. "We were lucky," a committee spokesman said. "Hughes appointed a committee which he felt would listen to us fairly and openly. It might have been otherwise."

Cross-Section

The student committee represents a fair cross-section of all History graduate students, the spokesman said. "We've tried to reach virtually every student in the department. In one way or another, we have succeeded," he added.

The demand for "due process of review," the spokesman said, is not the result of any specific incident. "Over the last ten years there have been a number of times when graduate students have been asked to leave the department and no reason has been given," he said. "Now there is a lot of fear, among first-year students especially, that if they do anything wrong they'll be kicked out."

"I'm afraid that will be a very touchy issue with the Faculty," the spokesman added, even though that point is by no means the most important of the demands.

The members of the student committee, elected at a December 4 graduate student meeting, are: Mrs. Robin M. Jacoby 2G; John J. LaGrand 4G; David C. Lane 3G; David S. Luft 3G; Barry F. O'Connell 2G; and Joel N. Shapiro 3G.

Giles Constable '50, Henry Charles Lea Professor of Medieval History, is chairman of the faculty committee.