Soc. Rel. Alumni Spurn Teaching Fellow Posts

Graduate students in Social Relations live "too high off the hog" to seek teaching fellowships at the College, Thomas F. Pettigrew, assistant professor of Social Psychology, said yesterday. So many scholarships are available for graduates in the field, that they do not accept "fairly low-paid teaching fellowships, even though the positions do not require too much time," he added.

Since teaching fellows make up over 50 per cent of the Board of Freshman Advisers, the lack of Social Relations fellows has resulted in a poor representation of the field on the Board. Only one person from the Department is among the 117 advisers.

Freshmen, therefore, are advised by Faculty members who are "typically neutral or negative to Social Relations, and who are particularly anxious to attract the students into other fields," Pettigrew said.

Problem Realized

R.S. White '25, chairman of the Social Relations Department, said that "we did not realize the problem until quite recently, and will begin right away to encourage more Faculty members to become advisers. He pointed out that regular professors have "so many demands on their time already that they hesitate to take on the additional burden."

Until Social Relations 10 was introduced in 1957, the Department was "at a horrible disadvantage" in the race to recruit Freshmen, Pettigrew said. Most students, when they enter college, "have not the slightest idea what sociology is, although they are quite familiar with most other subjects."

The Department accepts an "enormous" number of Sophomore transfer students each year, Pettigrew pointed out. These people "do very well," but would be better off if they were advised about Social Relations during the Freshman year, he asserted.