Ford Initiates HCUA Survey On Sections

Dean Ford has taken steps to insure that undergraduate opinion will be a major factor in deciding how more section men will be introduced into middle-group courses under the new graduate fellowship plan.

Ford has asked the Harvard Council for Undergraduate Affairs to study the ways middle-group courses might be improved by section men and "to canvass undergraduate opinion on what small group courses should do."

R. Thomas Seymour '64, HCUA chairman, predicted last night that "there might not be an overwhelming endorsement of the section plan by undergraduates." One of the study's aims will be to determine those courses and departments which could be helped most by the program, and those in which it might not be desirable.

Major HCUA Effort

Seymour said that he expects this study to be one of the Council's major efforts this year, "since this is a matter of very great significance to the College curriculum." He added that the study would also involve a look at the role of sections in lower-group courses, as well as a general evaluation of the middle-group programs.

Ford said he hopes that undergraduates will consider the situation as if "very good graduate students" would be the section men involved, and that the students will then suggest how these section men might help the courses.

Imagination Useful

"Those undergraduates who exercise imagination in their suggestion will be most helpful."

Thomas R. Brome '64, chairman of HCUA's General Education committee, which will conduct the study, said that he hopes to conduct two separate polls, one of undergraduates and another of professors and current section men. He expects the extensive investigation to be underway in a few weeks.