Department Changes in Operation
THE fall term has produced several departmental changes in the organization of the College curriculum. The Division of the Humanities increased the number of its academic departments with the addition of Drama. Although Air Science, renamed Aerospace Studies, has been moved to the Division of the Sciences, the Division of the Social Sciences retains the same number of departments through the separation of Sociology and Anthropology into separate departments. In addition to Aerospace Studies, another newly named department in the Sciences is Earth Sciences, formerly Geology.
Prof. John Finch is chairman of the new Drama Department, which has in its major program six juniors and five seniors. Its faculty includes Professors Rod Alexander and Henry B. Williams, Associate Professors George W. Schoenhut and David Sices, and Assistant Professors Stephen Coy, George Kalbouss, Werner Kleinhardt, Bruce McMullan, and William Scott. As approved by the Faculty of Arts and Sciences, the new department's membership is composed of all faculty members of the Hopkins Center Theater staff and members from these cooperating departments: Classics, English, German, Romance Languages, and Russian.
In addition to required literature courses chosen from English, the Classics, and foreign language drama courses, drama majors must participate in one project seminar, elect three of the Drama Department's seven offerings, and complete an independent reading program. The majors are expected also to participate actively in theater work in Hopkins Center.
Comparative Literature, chairmanned by Prof. Lawrence E. Harvey, is now a full-fledged major program administered by a committee of faculty members of the Humanities Division. Currently seven juniors are enrolled in the program which offers a choice of two majors. Both require reading knowledge of two languages in addition to English and at least one term of study abroad.
The newly separated Departments of Anthropology and Sociology have as chairmen Profs. Elmer Harp Jr. and H. Wentworth Eldredge '31. Enrolled as anthropology majors are 15 seniors and nine juniors and as sociology majors 18 seniors and 11 juniors.
Further curriculum changes within departments include the addition of two new courses in African history. One surveys the continent's history before 1800 and the second its history after that date. Both are taught by Leo Spitzer, who is working toward a Ph.D. after two years of research in Sierra Leone and England.
Seniors have been notified that they will no longer be exempted from spring-term final examinations in their major courses. The requirement of comprehensive exams has been left to the individual departments.
In the field of Physical Education, students must now complete three terms of physical education rather than the previously required six. High marks on the physical ability test no longer give exemption. The swimming test requirement for graduation still exists but now a student is considered to have passed it if he tries for one year.
