Teachers' Union Attacks Organization In Present System of College Tutoring

Calling for a reorganization of the tutorial system, a committee of the Teachers' Union urged drastic revision in the method of appointing tutors, in a report which was received by members of the Faculty by mail yesterday.

After three months of extensive investigation into the tutorial system, a committee headed by Richard B. Schlatter '34, instructor in History and Literature, wrote the eight page report which was published in full in the May Bulletin of the Cambridge Union of University Teachers.

"The Administration and the Departments must take positive steps," the report stated, "if Harvard is to preserve, unimpaired, two of its most important assets-tutorial instruction and the moral of the tutors."

Inexperienced Tutors

Pointing out that an increasing number of students are being tutored by men "who have little or no previous tutorial experience, who are doing graduate work, and who are not members of the Faculty," the Committee urged that the Administration and Departments take much greater care in choosing the lowest rank of teachers.

According to the Report of the Committee of Eight on Tenure, the College can given "a man four years as a teaching fellow, three annual appointments, and possibly a Faculty instructorship." The Teachers' Union Committee pointed out that by keeping tutors here as long as possible in these three capacities, the University can build up a large body of experienced tutors.

The report recommended that the College set up an organization to canvass other colleges and universities for candidates for teaching fellowships and annual instructorships.

Greater Tutorial Emphasis

In general, the report urged that Departments place more emphasis on the tutorial work of Faculty members. Although the Committee did not come out flatly in favor of making excellence as a tutor the main qualification of promotion to a Faculty instructorship and permanent tenure, it recommended that "the proposal be given serious consideration."

Concerning the administration and supervision of the tutorial system, the Committee recommended that it "be more systematically organized for the whole College and within the Departments. The means of attaining the desired systematic organization must be worked out by the Administration together with the Departments."

Specifically, the report urged more frequent meetings of tutorial chairmen, tutorial lunches or meetings in those departments which do not already have them, and a greater reduction in the teaching load of the tutorial chairmen in the large departments