CUE Organization Reflects Emphasis On Fact-Collecting

More than two months after its new term began in February, the Committee on Undergraduate Education (CUE) decided last Thursday to break down into subcommittees to handle "brass tacks" issues. But, as the committee's final organization indicates, the CUE does not want those tacks to become too sharp.

The issues on which the subcommittees will concentrate reflect a reluctance to handle any "hot potato" issues that would make for any real changes in the University. Only two of the six subcommittees will touch on structural questions.

One subcommittee will study the possibility of including the arts in the undergraduate curriculum. The other will investigate the use of sections and the size of classes, focusing on eliminating small-enrollment courses that do not seem to meet students' needs or interests.

Other Subcommittees

The four other subcommittees will either concentrate on more specific issues or will engage primarily in fact-gathering.

One will study the teaching load of graduate students, a topic raised by an impending cut in the funds allotted to teaching fellows. Another group will study the distribution of women among the University's departments, in an effort to uncover any pressures that might inhibit women from concentrating in particular fields.

The remaining two subcommittees are exclusively information-gatherers. One will conduct the CUE's course evaluation project, collating responses from questionnaires answered by students in high-enrollment courses. The other will compile data on educational procedures in each of the University's departments, in an effort to publicize successful innovations.

The CUE will consider broader questions, such as the place of the college in a University context, in the weekly "philosophical" discussions (as some members term them) of the entire committee.

The CUE, then, seems to be taking on the role of an information service, relegating structural issues to abstract debates. Yet even that function will be restricted by the committee's decision Thursday to exclude the general public and members of the press from the group's meetings.

Rather than allow reporters to directly cover CUE discussions, as it did last year, the committee will select one of its members to meet with reporters and give an account of that week's meeting.

The scope of the CUE's activity, of course, is constrained by the structure of the University. Even if the committee's five Faculty and five student members pass a resolution, there is little assurance that it will pass the Faculty Council, as most measures must.

Now, the decision to exclude press and public will limit the committee's capacity to even raise and publicize important educational issues in the University