Biology Students Circulate Petition For Additional Undergrad Courses

Twenty Biology concentrators are circulating a petition protesting the dearth of Biology courses offered this Spring.

"The Biology Department requires that concentrators take four half-courses in the 10-to-20 series but is offering only three this term," Markham Kirstan '71 said yesterday. "There is simply no follow-up to any of the first-semester cell biology courses," he said.

"The courses that are offered," added Lee M. Wilgus '71, "either are severely limited in enrollment, concern extremely specialized fields, or demand prerequisites unfulfilled by many students."

Winslow R. Briggs '50, chairman of the Biology Department's Committee on Undergraduate Students and Studies, said yesterday, "I don't blame the students at all. I feel they've been let down."

Briggs said that the department will definitely take some action to remedy the situation, but that no decision will be made until the end of the week, since department chairman Robert P. Levine is out of town.

'The problem is caused by the combination of a lack of foresight and unfortunate circumstances," Briggs said. "We should have done something last summer when we realized that Biology 15b would not be given this term," he said.

"The student petition is perhaps just what we need to convince the department to open up courses," Briggs added.

Biology concentrators may sign the petitions in the House dining halls, at Radcliffe, or in the Biology office today and tomorrow.