Cohen Announces New Department

Incoming sophomore honors candidates will be first in the history of the College to benefit from a plan approved Wednesday to bridge the present gap between the sciences and the humanities at Harvard.

The Faculty Committee on Educational Policy has just approved the expansion of the heretofore strictly limited area of History and Science into a full-fledged department, I. Bernard Cohen '37, associate professor of the History of Science and Chairman of the Department, reported yesterday.

Open to all honors candidates of both Harvard and Radcliffe, the field will be closely patterned after the Department of History and Literature, he stated. Unlike History and Literature, however, there will be no limit on the number of qualified students that the department will accept.

Under the rules of study approved for the department, seven and one half courses will be required; of these, four must be in Science or Mathematics and three will ordinarily have to be in one field, such as Physics, Chemistry, Biology, or Astronomy. The other three and one half courses will have to be taken in the field of History, of which one course would be in the History of Science and another senior tutorial for credit, he said yesterday.

Cohen said he expected the field would prove particularly attractive to pre-medical students who did not wish to concentrate entirely in the sciences. The course of study will permit pre-med requirements to be counted in fulfilling concentration requirements, he indicated yesterday.

Sufficient Tutorial Strength

The History of Science Department in the past has been limited to only 12 Harvard students and certain applicants from Radcliffe. But the chairman of the department said yesterday the department would have sufficient tutorial strength to handle a considerably larger number.

Tutorial in the department will be for three years, with only the sophomore year work being conducted in groups, each limited to three or four undergraduates.

Joining Cohen on the faculty committee for the department of History and Science will be: Arthur Darby Nock, Frothingham Professor of the History of Religion; Werner W. Jaeger, University. Professor; C. Crane Brinton '19, McLean Professor of Ancient and Modern History; Myron P. Gilmore, professor of History; Frank M. Carpenter '26, Alexander Agassiz Professor of Zoology; Phillippe E. LeCorbeiller, professor of Applied Physics; and Perry G. E. Miller, professor of American Literature.

"The experimental period is past, now," Cohen said yesterday, referring to the limited quota field as it was set up previously.

At the end of the student's senior year, he will be expected to present a thesis. He will also have to take a special written examination which will ordinarily be one of the special field examinations approved by the department of History. This examination will be supplemented by an essay question in the field of Science and History in which the thesis subject falls.

As in other fields, the Committee will summon candidates for oral examinations, Cohen said. Recommendations for honors will be based on the thesis, the special field examination, tutorial reports, and grades obtained in courses counting for concentration in History and Science.

Students who drop to pass candidacy will have to submit a "short" essay of not more than 10,000 words on March 1 and take the regular written special field examination set by the Department of History