Head Tutor's Report Suggests Changed Economics Program

The Economics Department next fall will begin to implement a series of changes in its curriculum which may lead to a reduction in the number of courses offered and to the assignment of more professors to teach tutorials and sections of Economics 10, "Introduction to Economics."

James S. Duesenberry, chairman of the department, said yesterday the department seeks to eliminate the "unpredictability" of the present curriculum which would insure that a course in each of eleven specific areas be given during every academic year.

Spokesmen for the department say that radical theory as well as a number of the traditional subdivisions--industrial organization, comparative systems, business economics and others--will be among the eleven areas.

The department also plans to assign more assistant professors to Ec 10 sections by requiring all newly-hired faculty members to teach a section.

"I definitely mean to deliver some assistant professor bodies into Ec 10 and 980 next year," Duesenberry said.

Ec 10, with 950 students enrolled, is the largest course in the University this year. Ec 980 is the department's junior tutorial.

The reorganization "does imply a cutdown in the number of courses outside the core curriculum," Martin C. Spechler, assistant professor of Economics and head tutor of the department, said yesterday.

Not Definite

The new policies are embodied in a memorandum written by Spechler for the consideration of the department's undergraduate instruction committee.

No formal action has been taken within the department to approve the proposals, but a general consensus favoring the views expressed in the memorandum led to the implementation plans, Duesenberry said.

The core areas specified in the report are designed to "avoid the problem of students finding that the only course available in a field is highly specialized" and to establish a principle that future faculty appointments in the department should conform to a rationalized scheme, Spechler said.

Duesenberry said that next year's catalogue "will be something fairly close to the proposal."