Course Lotteries

The student-faculty committee on undergraduate education (CUE) yesterday considered a recommendation by the Academic Committee of the Undergraduate Council that the College increase the use of lotteries to limit course enrollment in large classes.

The Academic Committee recommended to CUE, however, the admission be guaranteed to student who need a course for concentration credit, or who have previously been excluded from the class. In addition a professor who has a specific reason why he wishes to use another means to limit enrollment--such as regularly excluding all sophomores--would be permitted to do so.

"Permissions to limit will crease limits," said Edward T. Wilcen, director of the Core. "I'd much rather find resources to run the course," he added.

CUE also diseased adding Mathematics courses to the Core and making mathematics requirements more rigorous.

David R. Layzer '46, Donald H. Menzel Professor of Astrophysics and a member of the CUE, questioned the Core's philosophy of emphasizing approaches to knowledge and modes of thinking rather than content. He called the notion of a general scientific method "nonsense."