Building A Better Tutorial

FACULTY MEMBERS often point to the passage of the Core Curriculum as evidence of their commitment to undergraduate education. Supporting a stronger tutorial program would be a more convincing display of that commitment.

The Faculty has an opportunity to remedy its past deficiencies through legislation proposed by Glen W. Bowersock '57, associate dean of the Faculty for undergraduate education, requiring professors to teach more tutorials. The major portion of the legislation simply recognizes the longstanding but blantantly disregarded legislation passed in 1958 requiring that no more than 30 per cent of a department's tutors be teaching fellows and no less than 30 per cent be full time Faculty members.

Further, the reforms propose that every fulltime professor teach a minimum of one tutorial per term, insuring active participation by Faculty in undergraduate education on a basic level. Finally, the legislation suggests that large departments offer special junior seminars led by Faculty members, giving students a choice of taking a more intimate tutorial with a graduate student or working with an experienced Faculty member in a larger group.

It remains to be seen whether these reforms can be any more effectively enforced than the 1958 tutorial legislation. Bowersock's plan would establish departmental student-faculty committees to review the tutorials and notify administrators when they fail to comply with the requirments. Faculty Council members requested last week that the legislation clearly state that students would serve only on an advisory basis. As a result, Faculty members would serve as their own judges. The reforms will be useless unless the Faculty takes tutorial reform seriously and obeys its requirments.