Astronomy Plans Tutorial Program Beginning in Fall

Tutorial instruction in Astronomy will be resumed next fall for the first time since the war. Open to all students in the Department, the program will make the Department the second science field to offer tutorial. Such a program is now offered in Biochemical Sciences.

Designed to cover aspects of astronomy which the student cannot ordinarily get through courses, tutorial will be held about once a month. Problems such as radio astronomy might be taken up, Fred L. Whipple, Department chairman, explained last night at a meeting of Astronomy concentrators. The final decision on the subject would be made jointly by the tutor and students, he added.

Individual tutorial will be offered to juniors and seniors whose average in Astronomy, Mathematics, and Physics courses is B or better, while group tutorial, for four or less students, will be offered to all sophomores and to the remaining juniors and seniors.

All of the undergraduate concentrators had petitioned Whipple in March, asking that some program of this sort be set up. Whipple agreed, explaining last night that the Department now felt that the present crowded course schedule made it difficult for an undergraduate to take the research-thesis course, Astronomy 30, which also allows the student to probe a specific field.