Policy Committee

PROPOSALS TO HAVE undergraduates take a hand in devising educational policies of the College have had their first concrete result in the appointment by the English Department of a special faculty committee to meet periodically with representatives of the English majors. The student group will comprise the steering committee of the Council of English Majors, a body of 12 men formed this year.

Some steps toward student representation in departmental counsels have already been taken in the social sciences at Dartmouth, but the English Department's fully organized plan is the most important development to date. In accepting the student proposal, the Department commended the purpose and organization of the Council of English Majors, while TheDartmouth, which has backed the idea of student participation, declared editorially that "congratulations can be equally divided between the students who had the initiative to organize the committee and the faculty who had the sympathy to recognize it as a valid and constructive function of the educational process."

As its objectives the undergraduate council has the creation of greater student interest and participation in educational functions of the College, the development of a larger interplay of minds among students and faculty, and the creation of more important and more productive social cohesion between students and faculty.

Topics which the undergraduates have listed for discussion with the faculty include the Freshman English course, the possibility of providing honors work in all branches of the major instead of the Survey of English Literature now offered, the possibility of a coordinating thesis in the major, and the possibility of providing seminars on popular subjects not available in courses. These topics have been proposed by the Council's educaional sub-committee. A social sub-committee has in mind the development of closer relations between the English majors and their professors through activities in Sanborn English House.