Faculty Approves Revisions In Sophomore History Tutorial

In the first major revision of the History tutorial program since 1970, the Faculty last month approved changes in the sophomore tutorial which will require new concentrators to take a half-course in a non-Western field.

The revision eliminates the currently required "Third World" topic from the year-long course, requiring instead that students take a half-course in either African. Asian. Latin American, or Near Eastern history.

Calling the revision a "very considerable improvement," Wallace T. MacCaffrey, Higginson Professor of History, said yesterday it would remedy flaws in the current tutorial program, "History 97 had become shapeless and students were baffled as to what it was all about," he said, adding that most history tutors felt uncomfortable teaching a non-Western topic because they were unfamiliar with the fie.

Over the past four years, only five out of 47 history tutors specialized and felt competent in a non-Western field, Steven E. Ozment, professor of History and head tutor, said yesterday. "We are giving the course a lot more focus and making it more sound pedagogically," Ozment said, adding. "The revision gives a tutor more freedom to teach in the area of his or her competence."

The official revision, on which the Undergraduate Curriculum Committee of the department had been working for several months, states: "History 97 will take a topical, problem-oriented approach. Each tutorial will deal with four topics per year, each six weeks long. Topics will be structured to insure that a variety of sources and approaches is covered within each topic, and that topics deal with well-delineated problems, that is that they do not become 'mini-courses."'

The revision also lays out four major areas of history--American. Modern Europe, Europe before 1700, and historiography--from which tutors will choose topics prepared by a Faculty Committee.

Philip A. Kuhn, professor of History and East Asian Languages and Civilizations, yesterday called the new half-course requirement "a commendable realization on the part of my colleagues that the world is round." He added, however, that the revision of the tutorial "impoverishes it by reducing it to a small portion of human experience.