Student Council Endorses General Education Report

After a brave four hour struggle with the theory and practice of evaluating statistics, a weary Council last night approved the 74-page Report on General Education.

Presented by a committee headed by Robert H. Cole '52, the report found that "The success of G.E. as measured by the attainments of its basic aims cannot be said to be very great ... G.E. has had only modest success both in its effects on students and in their conception of its objectives."

Cole's committee circulated questionnaires to 674 upperclassmen in the fall of last year. While 70% of those who answered felt that there was "something worthwhile and unique" in the G.E. program, only slightly over half noted an improvement in effective thinking, judgments of values, and balancing specializations, as set forth in the G.E. theory.

The Council made the following recommendations:

1.) That, subject to change in student opinion, and the number of students exempted in Natural Sciences, only two G.E. courses be required.

2.) That fewer topics be studied more intensively.

3.) That there be more lower-level G.E. courses.

4.) Papers be designed to relate what a student has learned to his own experience.

Training Seminars

The report also suggested that informal training seminars be established for the section men, and that all three areas offer experimental seminars for senior concentrators.

The committee found that students who had taken more G.E. courses evaluated the program higher. Of the instructors in G.E. who were polled, a majority felt that G.E. was "partially and provisionally" successful.

The committee consisted of Cole as Chairman, Hugh Amory '52, Robert Fain '52, David Lattimore '52, and Richard W. Weiskopf '52.