Gov. Dept. Considers Proposals To Alter tutorial, Thesis Rules

The Government Department is now considering a long list of changes in the tutorial system, including a plan proposed last year by Donald R. Brown, instructor in Government, which would advance the due date for senior honors theses four months.

Sanford A. Lakoff, head tutor and assistant professor of Government, has been holding a series of dinner meetings with department members. A these meetings, a number of proposals to "relieve the congestion in the spring of the senior year," including the Brown plan, have been discussed, Lakoff said yesterday.

The controversy began nearly a year ago when Brown proposed that senior honors theses be due in December of the senior year, instead of in April. He maintained that with honors hour exams right after spring vacating on general exams the first week in May, the honors senior was flooded with so many tasks that he could do none of them adequately.

He therefore suggested that honors candidates begin to prepare their theses in February of their junior year.

During the past year, a number of alternative proposals have been raised. Some members of the department have suggested hat juniors be required to urn in their final selection of thesis topic before they leave in the spring. They could then "think about" their topic over the summer, and be ready to begin work immediately when hey returned in September. The due date could then be pushed back about a month, reliving to some extent the spring "congestion."

All department members are not, however, convinced that this congestion is a very great problem, Lakoff declared.

A number of other suggested changes such as altering the length of the thesis and the date of honors hour exams have been discussed.

Lakoff will present a report on these proposals to the March meeting of the Department.