Wald Declares Nat. Sci. 5 'Lives Up to Expectations'

George Wald, professor of Biology, yesterday denied rumors that his Natural Sciences 5 course in floundering.

Calling the reports circulating around the Yard "absolutely wild," Wald maintained that the course, which has combined pre-med and general education biology into one class, has "fully lived up to expectations."

Many students have complained that the course is impossibly difficult for non-concentrators with little background in chemistry. At the same time, upperclassmen who have taken other college science courses consider it too simple.

Wald, however, stated that grading in the course has been "perfectly normal," and that there seems to be no great grade split between pre-med and Gen. Ed. students. Out of approximately 320 students enrolled in the course. Wald said that he could recall only about a dozen failures, far below average.

In commenting on rumors that a large group of students would be dropped from the course at the beginning of the Spring Term. Wald stated that "nothing could be further from the truth." He noted that the grade average for the Fall Term was approximately at the C level and that the curve did not show any unusual distribution.

Favorable Questionnaire

Wald added that he was "watching the course every minute" for sign of student dissatisfaction, and that he had found none. He noted that a questionnaire asking students for suggestions for changing the course had reassured him that he was "doing the right thing."

He suggested that the difficulty could be arising from a number of unsuccessful freshmen who were "looking for an out."

"In every lower-level course containing a large group of freshmen you run into a certain number of students who really aren't ready for college," he stated. These students were probably the ones who tarted the rumors.