Visual Studies

The new Visual and Environmental Studies Department which is to replace the Architectural Sciences Department has decided not to allow any sophomores to transfer into the new major next year. The department had two months earlier indicated to the sophomores that they would be allowed to transfer in. The department has also chosen 23 freshmen to start the concentration program in the fall. The applications of some 40 other freshmen were turned down.

Limiting the number of concentrators was a necessary action. The Visual Arts Center no more has the facilities to handle all its qualified applicants than does Harvard College. To have exceeded their own guidelines of 20 concentrators from each class would have forced the Visual Studies Department to limit the outside enrollment in their courses even more than it is already.

At the moment some courses have ten applicants for every place in the course. The two highest men in the department, Professor Eduard Sekler and Professor Albert Szabo, have both stressed that the primary purpose of the Carpenter Center is to extend ideas of visual communication to as many people in the university as is possible. This goal is as it should be in a liberal arts college.

The Faculty of Arts and Sciences turned down the department's request to fund a junior tutorial which would have allowed this year's sophomores to enter the new major. The Faculty, whose budget ran a deficit last year, decided it couldn't afford the tutorial program as well as the new department. This decision reflects little concern for some twenty sophomores who won't be able to graduate in Visual Studies.

The question of whether "Visual and Environmental Studies" or "Architectural Sciences" will be printed on one's degree is not an altogether trivial matter. Many in Arch Sci will graduate having concentrated mostly in Visual Studies now that the two departments are essentially the same. "Architectural Sciences" will misrepresent the nature of their study.

The Architectural Sciences Department, acting in good faith, has promised to adjust its concentration requirements towards those of the new major. For example, under certain circumstances the department will grant permission to substitute its math and physics requirement with courses from the much wider list of Visual Studies required and optional related courses. Also all Vis Stud courses will be equally open to Arch Sci concentrators next year. It is important that the old department let its concentrators make their programs of study as much like those of the new department as possible.

The new department will add a limited number of transfers and advanced standing freshmen to its sophomores next December. This last act is a sign of what the department must do--remain flexible enough to handle the individual needs of the students as well as the program.