Student-Faculty Committee Will Study Geology Dept.

A student-faculty committee, headed by graduate students, has been appointed by Raymond Siever, chairman of the Geology Department, to consider changes in the structure of the department.

Committee chairman Paul G. Fiess, a fourth-year graduate student, said the committee will discuss complaints raised by a questionnaire circulated among geology students last spring.

Among the topics to be discussed, Feiss said, are:

* A review of the subjects covered by graduate seminars.

* Converting some graduate lecture courses to seminars. "Often only eight or ten students attend a lecture course," Fiess said. "When this happens, it's unnecessarily formal to run the course as a lecture. Students would get a lot more out of a seminar."

* An informal series of seminars on the social relevance of geology. An undergraduate supporter of this proposal argued, "Many undergraduates in the department are not sure of the relevance of what they are studying. These people would really benefit by studying the impact of geology on the modern world."

Besides Siever and Fiess, the committee consists of James F. Hays, assistant professor of Geology, John Haller, associate professor of Geology, Roger D. K. Thomas, a fifth-year graduate student, John W. Creasy, a second-year graduate student, and an undergraduate in the department, as yet unnamed.

The committee plans to meet once a month throughout next year. Meetings will be open to the faculty and students of the department. Siever will formally present the committee to the Geology Club on January 8 in the Hoffman Lounge.

"I think we have very good relations between the faculty and the students in this department," Feiss said. "But I also think that this committee will be a good thing. A lot of things about the department can stand improvement."