Eviscerating the Gulf

The Social Relations Department has successfully weathered its first major identity crisis by deciding to dispel its image as a "gut" major. All concentrators will now take junior general examinations.

Defects in the present system justify the change. The current program requires either a six-hour general examination or a one-hour oral. The written exam is administered only to non-honors concentrators, in spring of senior year. It is subdivided into a general and a special section--the former assessing the student's general comprehension and the latter testing his knowledge of one of the four areas of specialization.

Seniors who have written theses take only an oral exam. In theory the hour is evenly divided between testing the student's overall comprehension of social relations and determining his knowledge of his thesis topic. In fact the former purpose is seldom achieved. Honors concentrators receive little or no testing of their understanding of the field as a whole.

Because the exam is administered at the end of senior year, the student doesn't benefit from the "feedback" effect; under the new plan, a student will be able to determine his strengths and weaknesses in time to learn something from the experience. At present, since failure would prevent graduation, teaching fellows grade the generals very leniently. With the new system, students who fail the exam will be able to take it again the following spring.

The junior exam will improve the quality of the students in the department, especially those in the honors program. Many students readily admit they choose Soc Rel because the courses and requirements are easy. Of those students, a very large number (this year 74%) write senior theses. In a recent report, the department's undergraduate committee noted that "many concentrators choose to do honors because it is simply 'easier' to take a full course during the year in which the only requirement is a long paper than it would be to take the normal course load and in addition have to prepare for and take a six-hour exam."

For the new plan to operate successfully, however, the department will have to effect other--and more fundamental--changes. Students currently in the field are simply not ready to take a comprehensive exam by the end of junior year, partly because of haphazard distribution requirements within the field, but primarily because the sophomore tutorial program lacks direction.

For honors concentrators, there is currently no course distribution requirement within the department's four areas of specialization. The Soc Rel undergraduate committee encourages students who have overspecialized to vary their programs, but encouragement has rarely been enough.

Even if a student does gain a cursory knowledge of each area by taking one of the introductory courses offered, he is poorly prepared to take a general examination which examines his ability to relate and integrate the four separate areas, to understand the field as a whole.

The institution of junior generals is a wise, but only a first, step. The department should now turn its attention to the Soc Rel curricula. Formal distribution requirements within the field are needed, for all concentrators. Much more important, something must be done with sophomore tutorial, which now serves no purpose and earns no course credit. The present, very vague guidelines for the tutorial should give way to a definite syllabus, providing adequate interdisciplinary groundwork for the new junior generals.

Only if the winds of change blow strong through the department, will concentrators ever be able to convince the skeptical that "Social Relations" does in fact mean something.