Graduate School Report To Be Released Today

A review committee, set up last summer by Dean of the Faculty A. Michael Spence to analyze and suggest potentially broads scrapping changes for the Graduate School of Arts and Sciences (GSAS), is expected to report its findings at today's Faculty Council meeting.

The committee has been looking at how to improve interaction between the central GSAS administration and the departments (where graduate students do all of their learning and research), Strauch said.

In addition, they are analyzing how many undergraduate courses graduate students should teach and how graduate education should be financed, Strauch said.

The committee finalized its report at a meeting Saturday morning, said Leverett Professor of Physics Karl Strauch, who chairs the committee.

Strauch said Spence asked the committee to look at all aspects of the GSAS, but to concentrate on the GSAS administration.

University officials and committee members yesterday refused to discuss the content of the report.

Strauch said the committee tried to answer the following questions:

*Are the present admissions policies reasonable?

*Are the present need-related financial support policies reasonable?

*Is the number of students admitted reasonable?

*What is a reasonable length of time for a graduate career?

The committee met with representatives of the Graduate Student Council who expressed concerns ranging from financial aid to the availability of affordable housing in Cambridge.

Details of the so-called Strauch report will likely be released after today's meeting of the Faculty Council, a 19 member Faculty steering committee.

Strauch said that the Faculty Council may vote on his report today because its next meeting is not until May 1. If the Faculty Council approves the report, the full Faculty may consider it for final approval as early as May.

The last such review of the GSAS, the 1969 Wolff Report, recommended, among other things, a 20 percent reduction in the size of the GSAS to 2400 students.

The GSAS receives 25,000 inquiries and 4000 applications each year for 450 slots Strauch said.

Presently, the GSAS is operating with an acting dean, and Spence said that he would wait for the Strauch Report before appointing a top administrator.

Members of the Strauch committee could either not be reached for comment or refused comment.

David A. Isaacs and Geoffrey H. Simson contributed to the reporting of this article