Kiely Heads Probe Of English Program

A special student-faculty committee charged with reassessing the undergraduate English program will begin meeting before Spring vacation, with associate professor Robert J. Kiely as chairman.

"We will be talking about the basic premises of the department-not just specific matters," Kiely said yesterday. "The English Department is not analagous to a department store, with knowledge passing across a counter. We're all reading and talking about books and must try to figure out why we're together."

The Committee, which will report to the English faculty next fall, will consider such issues as requirements for honors and non-honors concentration, course offerings, exams, and the role of creative writing in the department.

Besides Kiely, five faculty members and three students will serve on the committee. The faculty members are professors Reuben A. Brower and David D. Perkins '51, assistant professors John R. Maynard '63 and Kevin O. Starr, and teaching fellow Mark W. Booth. Student representatives have not yet been chosen.

The committee's discussions will be a continuation of the joint meetings which have been held throughout the year by the English Department's Committee on Undergraduate Studies with a group of senior English concentrators representing each Harvard and Radcliffe House.

These meetings originally focused on complaints against the examination traditionally required of English concentrators at the end of their junior year. Other specific issues were raised, however, and the group decided to recommend the formation of a special committee to examine the entire undergraduate program.

The English faculty approved this recommendation at a meeting on Feb. 24.

Tutors and seniors in all Houses have been organizing a group of non-senior English concentrators-paralleling the senior group-which will channel student opinion to Kiely's committee. This group will meet for the first time Friday and elect three of its own number to the committee.