1.6 Education in the Houses

13. The continuation of the House Course program as presently legislated with the budgetary and administrative support of the Faculty of Arts and Sciences. The Task Force felt very strongly about this matter.

Student-Faculty Contact

14. The creation or continuation of the more structured activities in the Houses, such as special tables, talks by Faculty members, and House courses (see recommendation 13) organized or mediated by Tutors.

a. This would require a better selection process for tutors, through cooperation between departments and the Houses and through the circulation of job descriptions (recommendation 3), and better procedures for the recruitment of Faculty associates (recommendation 1).

b. Tutor selection could also be improved by the circulation of a memorandum to the masters outlining the variety of ways in which tutors are selected and the various criteria used.

15. Attempts should be made to locate the space of each department in close by facilities. $

16. Department chairmen should be encouraged to investigate the possible benefits to student-Faculty contact that might accrue from organizing some of the larger departments into subgroups or micro-communities. While not denying there are some debits too, the Task Force felt that these divisions need not be formalized as full-fledged sub-departments, but might follow cleavages within fields that already exist on topical or theoretical lines.

17. Greater efforts should be made to develop strong representations of the large departments in the Houses through the tutorial staff.

18. All departments should publish information sheets to be circulated to concentrators, listing the names, backgrounds and intellectual interests of the faculty members and graduate students, and if possible lists of undergraduate concentrators.

The Arts

19. The Task Force is fully aware of the extent of past discussions of arts training in the curriculum, and we appreciate the time and effort that has already been devoted to this complex question. Nevertheless we felt it our responsibility to observe that the matter has not yet been resolved to the best advantage of our students. We would urge the faculty, in the context of its complete review of undergraduate education to consider the importance of the arts in the intellectual development of every educated man and woman.

a. We understand that the charge to our Task Force on College Life did not include discussion of curricular matters, (with the exception of instruction in the Houses) but we feel constrained to mention the matter of credit for performance because it is inextricably connected to the condition of all work done in the arts on this campus. We favor credit for performance when such activities are part of an analytically and theoretically rigorous course of study (although we would not support credit for performance by itself without such an academic complement.)

b. It is hoped that there could be an expansion of opportunities at the intermediate level for activities relating to film, photography, and music. $

c. It is suggested that opportunities in the form of small group instruction might be available through the Houses by qualified music tutors who would be paid at the rate of Teaching Fellows. $