History Dept. Changes Course Requirements

Seeking to round out the education of its undergraduates, the History Department has decided to broaden slightly the requirements required of concentrators.

History concentrators will no longer be required to take two courses in a minor area of study, but will instead be asked to take two courses in different fields of history, said Caroline C. Ford, History head tutor.

"The minor has been eliminated and replaced by distribution requirements," Ford said. "It was decided that this would give students a greater degree of choice."

"The change tries to give greater breadth to the program by making students distribute their courses over a larger field," said Dennis N. Skiotis, coordinator of undergraduate study for the History Department.

Requirements of junior and senior concentrators will remain the same--five half courses in major area, two half courses in minor area and one non-Western area course. Starting with this year's sophomore class students will focus on one of the three main fields of study and take at least one course each in the remaining two.

The distribution areas include Ancient History: Europe 500 to 1700 Modern Western: America and Europe since 1700; and Non-Western: Africa, Latin America, Eastern Asia and the Near East.

Assistant Professor of History Susan G. Pederson, head tutor last year, said the change was implemented for practical reasons.

"Essentially, the requirements were too burdensome for some students," Pederson said. "The purpose is to enable students to take [History] 10a and 10b without it being burdensome to fulfill the other requirements."

Administrators have said that the new distribution requirements will help history concentrators to compare Western and non-Western cultures.