Business School Plans to Continue Experimental Curriculum Change

The Business School's M. B. A. faculty voted Wednesday to continue next year an experimental "special session" of the normally rigid first-year curriculum, perhaps leading to the first M. B. A. curriculum change in ten years.

Charles J. Christenson, professor of Business Administration and director of the special program, said yesterday that the program was designed to "introduce a new flexibility into the M. B. A. program and enable us to try new teaching approaches without the stamp of a faculty vote."

The first special session-involving 133 of the 750 entering candidates for the M. B. A. degree-was approved by the faculty last March.

"The program involves a rearrangement of material-sometimes under now course titles-rather than a material change," Christenson said.

Normally the first year student takes 11 required half-courses. By combining a Behavioral Sciences course with one on Measurement and Control Systems, the special system involves about 20 per cent fewer class hours.

Admitted students are given a choice of whether they would like to be in the special session or the regular program.

"The first year program seemed to be jamming more and more material into a fixed time. There was a growth of now concepts and techniques, the cases were becoming longer to enable better understanding. These things were hap-

pening in each course, independently from other courses," Christenson said.

Christenson said he hopes the faculty will decide some time next year whether the special session should lead to any permanent changes in the first year of the M.B.A. program.

The last major M.B.A. curriculum change was in 1961 when, the Curriculum Committee decided to integrate the behavioral sciences and quantitative methods into the M.B.A. program, Christenson said.