Advertisement

Joint Instruction Permanent For Advanced Courses, Buck States

Crowded Classrooms Explained by Provost

"Joint instruction," though on a less extensive basis than the present system, will be a permanent feature of the College, Provost Paul H. Buck stated yesterday.

However, he took great pains to distinguish between the "temporary" and "permanent" phases of the plan, which was established by Faculty vote in the spring of 1948. Originally designed to merge advanced courses, it had to be extended during the war to include certain others, such as History 5 and Fine Arts 1, because of reduced enrollment, a small faculty, the three-term calendar, and other wartime considerations.

Only Advanced Courses

With the conclusion of the emergency and the return of the University to a more complete peace-time routine, probably all except the larger "middle-group" courses, as well as graduate courses, will be open to Radcliffe students.

No definite decision has been made as yet on the specific classes, now co-educational, which will be separated, nor on the date when the revision will be accomplished.

Advertisement

According to Buck, who termed the arrangement a "superb" one, the Faculty "feels that it has worked very well." Describing the difficulties inherent in presenting the same lecture twice, he pointed out that the joint instruction program saves resources and time. It has been in effect on the graduate level for many years.

Present over-crowding of lecture halls, Buck indicated, is more a problem of mechanics than enrolment and should be relieved shortly.

"Furthermore, the continuity of reputa- tion has been broken," he continued. "The value of specific courses and instructors is unknown to the bulk of students, and so the traditionally large classes are not necessarily so sizable now.

Advertisement