New Limits

THE HPC's report on Independent Study was never buried, we are now told, merely resting while the Committee on Educational Policy plowed through the specifics of two other HPC proposals--pass-fail and a reduced language requirement. The investigation of Independent Study the CEP opened this week promises some revisions in a program well overdue for structural changes.

Independent Study isn't what it used to be. It has grown (from about 70 students in 1960 to more than 300 now). And the CEP's investigations have shown that students now mainly use the program to create a course of study not listed in the catalogue with the supervision of a willing Faculty member. Originally Independent Study was meant to provide a mechanism by which good students could reduce their course load from four to three. The idea was that most students would choose to explore some obscure nook of their special field and would not want or ask for much Faculty supervision. Neither expectation has turned out to be true, but the rules governing Independent Study are still based on the old theory rather than the present reality.

RANK list standing is not a sensible criterion for screening the kind of Independent Studies being done now. A lower rank list student who may be unhappy with formal course structures and no dullard, should be allowed to take an Independent Study if he has the ingenuity and initiative to set one up. Similarly, there is no reason to close off the benefits of the program to sophomores; Independent Study might liven up this year, whose sluggishness is legendary. The CEP should also make the signature of the sponsor and perhaps of a senior official in that department enough authorization. There is no point to the present rule which requires that all projects have the signature of the head tutor in a student's field of concentration. It only leads to the ugly feeling that students in some departments are discriminated against because their department chooses to be tough on Independent Study.

Controls have a place in the Independent Study program, and the three changes the CEP is considering would still leave a mechanism for Faculty members to guide students away from blind alleys. It is time though for the Faculty to jetison artificial standards like college year and rank in class. The limits on Independent Study should be the ability of students to think up good projects and the willingness of individual Faculty members to supervise them.