Student Opinion To Assist Reform Of Slavic Program

The Department of Slavic Languages and Literatures has asked undergraduate concentrators to recommend improvements by Thursday that will help an inter-departmental committee make changes in the concentration's courses and requirements.

The evaluation is being supervised by Vladimir Alexandrov, head tutor in the department, in conjunction with the Slavic and East European Language and Area Center. The center "wants a general overview of what is going on in our department." Alexandrov said yesterday.

The department currently offers Russian literature as a concentration, with an option focusing on Russian-Soviet studies (RSS).

"The RSS major is very unstructured right now--we are pretty much on our own in choosing our program of study," Natasha Wei '82, a concentrator, said yesterday. "The problem is they (department officials) haven't clearly stated anywhere what courses they expect us to take," she added.

Alexandrov said the department is "exploring the possibility of offering Russian art, music and architecture, and we've received one suggestion for an advanced Russian language conversation course."

The students' suggestions will enable the Center to set priorities in parcelling out existing funds, Janet Vaillant, associate director of the Center, said yesterday.

Student concentrators do not recall having been requested previously to submit a written evaluation of the department. "In the past we have registered complaints amd they have been acted upon." Katie Alfred '81, one of the department's 40 concentrators, added.

One such change was made last year when the non-credit, semester-long sophomore tutorial became a credited full-year course.