Graduate Students In History Oppose Rosovsky's Letter

History Department graduate students are drafting a letter to Dean Rosovsky, claiming his proposals for education reform would reduce teaching by graduate students and result in a decline to the quality of undergraduate education.

The graduate students say an attempt to increase faculty-student contact by cutting down on the use of teaching fellows will swell student-teacher ratios and might limit options for tutorials.

Disagrees With Conclusions

The letter, signed by 38 of 45 History Department tutors, expresses "disagreement with the philosophical conclusions and practical implementations" of Rosovsky's letter.

It says Rosovsky's "alleged improvements, however they benefit the University financially, can only result in worse, not better, undergraduate education."

One graduate student called Rosovsky's letter an "intellectual rationalization for cutting funds to graduate students in the name of quality education."

Letter to the Faculty

Rosovsky presented his doubts about the quality of the College's education in a letter to the Faculty two weeks ago. In the letter he cited a possible "erosion in the quality of teaching at Harvard" and the lack of student-faculty contact as areas needing improvement.

Rosovsky's letter to the Faculty called for more student-faculty contact and said, "The availability of teaching fellows clearly permitted an expansion of tutorial programs and a greater freedom for faculty to teach specialized courses, but it is not clear that these changes have benefitted undergraduates."

Rosovsky said yesterday that he has no knowledge of the letter from the graduate students, but said that in his letter to the Faculty he had not made any proposals about changing the role of graduate students.

The History graduate students say the burden of tutorials is handled by graduate students and claim that cutting back on graduate student teaching will lessen undergraduate contact with teachers while providing an illusion of increased faculty contact.

Wallace T. MacCaffrey, chairman of the History Department, said yesterday he is aware of the concern on the part of the graduate students, but that evaluation is still in the early stages and no specific proposals have been made yet.

Patrice L. R. Higonnet, head tutor of the History Department, said yesterday he will try to persuade Rosovsky to issue a statement on the financial aspects of his reforms. He said although he sympathizes with the concern of the graduate students there is at present no need for concern.

Higonnet said he has not discussed Rosovsky's letter with History Department faculty, but said a committee within the department is considering a re-allocation of faculty time to increase student contact