Dean Rosovsky decided earlier this spring that the time was ripe to place the Social Studies concentration under the administrative microscope. Toward that end, he appointed a committee of Harvard and non-University experts to review the two-decade-old concentration.

The major's growth since its switch to an open admissions policy and the decision of Michael L. Walzer, professor of Government and chairman of the concentration for 12 years, to leave Harvard prompted Rosovsky to undertake the review.

Most of the members of the committee on degrees in Social Studies said they welcomed the study as a way to improve the concentration's administrative structure.

Rosovsky also decided to appoint an acting Social Studies chairman for a year until questions about the nature of that position and about the concentration's structure are resolved.