History and Lit Theses Handed In; 8 Take Extensions

Forty-five senior concentrators in History and Literature had handed in their theses by the 5 p.m. deadline yesterday, while eight more had extensions and two were unaccounted for.

The number of theses will be about the same this year as it has been in the past, Linda J. Gray, departmental secretary, said yesterday.

The department requires theses, which ranged this year from an analysis of the Port-Royal logic to an essay on Camus and Sartre, to be between 40 and 50 pages long.

Students who either fail to hand in a thesis or who do not receive an honor grade on their thesis lose their departmental status and receive their degree in "General Studies."

Many students said yesterday they spent much of Tuesday night finishing off their theses, but Linda Novak '78 said she completed hers a week ago, and spent the last few days in Puerto Rico "doing the footnotes."

Linda Goodman '78 seemed to sum up the feelings of many thesis writers who were finished, and said "I'm going to go get completely drunk."

"We're continuing the Radcliffe tradition and expanding it by including parents of male undergraduates too," Dingman said.

"Parents usually don't want to appear meddlesome by visiting their sons and daughters. This weekend will give parents a good excuse to check out Harvard," he added.

This is the first time parents of the junior class have been formally invited to Harvard, Tony Downer '79, chairman of the junior class committee, which is co-sponsoring the event with the parents association, said yesterday.

"There was no freshman weekend for the Class of '79, so we hope this will make up for that," Downer said.

Scheduled activities include slide shows on the history of Harvard and Radcliffe, tours of the campus and the Fogg Art Museum, receptions, speeches and discussions led by students and administrators.

Lectures by Edwin O. Reischauer, University Professor, John H. Finley '25, Eliot Professor of Greek Literature Emeritus, and Edward O. Wilson, Baird Professor of Science, will highlight the weekend. These professors will speak on topics in their fields of expertise and try to simulate the classroom experience for parents.

"We want to give parents some idea of what life at Harvard and Radcliffe is really like," Downer said.