Slavic Languages . . .

The Slavic Department was completely reorganized this year, and now has much variety as any department in the College. One can take courses in anything from Comparative Slavic Linguistics and Beginning Ukranian to Tolstoy and Dostoevsky, each taught by outstanding specialists.

Professor Roman Jakobson, who came from Columbia this year, is one of the world's leading philgists, and has command of most languages spoken between the Elbe and the Yangtze. His wife, Dr. Svatava Pirkova-Jakobson, teaches Czech.

Concentrators Need Russian

The courses in literature generally do not require a knowledge of Russian, but for concentrators and others knowing the language it is recommended that the reading be done in the original. Professor Michael Karpovich, who gave up History 1 this year to concentrate on his new duties as head of the Slavic Department, gives the general survey courses.

The requirements for majoring in Slavic are about the same as for most fields: General examinations in the senior year, group tutorial for juniors and seniors out for Honors, and a thesis in the senior year. Six courses are required for concentration, eight for Honors, but two of these may be in related fields and two will almost always be the first year intensive Russian course.

Social Relations

Since its inception in 1946, the Social Relations Department has acquired more stereotypes than any other infant of comparable age. Its detractors call it everything from an esoteric clique to a white-shoe meeting place, and its concentrators do indeed range to these extremes.

There are four sub-fields within the department: Social Psychology, Clinical Psychology, Sociology, and Social Anthropology, each of which was an independent department before 1946. The concentrator specializes in one of these four, but usually takes at least one half-course in each of the others to prepare for the general exams.

Many Related Courses

Though concentrators are only required to take four Soc. Rel. and two related courses, most take at least five within the field to satisfy various requirements. The related courses may be drawn indiscriminately from Anthropology, Biology, Economics, Government, History, Philosophy, and Psychology, provided at least one is not elementary.

Tutorial is available only on a group basis for juniors and sophomores, and individually for seniors honors candidates: Any sophomore can get bi-weekly group tutorial for one term; juniors in Group IV or higher can get weekly sessions in both terms. Seniors may take Soc. Rel. 99 for credit to get special assistance on their theses.

Clinical Psychology draws the most specialists, Sociology and Social Psychology are about equal, and Social Anthropology is the smallest field. About ten to fifteen percent of concentrators go on to graduate work in Soc. Rel., which is an essential prerequisite to obtaining a good position in any of the four fields.

It takes a brave man to enter Social Relations these days. He must be able to find his way around in almost amorphous field, and endure the constant jeers of his friends. But if he sticks it out, he will find that he is well-prepared for practically anything he may want to do after graduation.