Pass-Fail Does Not Crowd Many of Popular Courses

A preliminary survey indicates that pass-fail students have not poured into some of the courses most popular with non-concentrators.

When the Harvard Policy Committee first proposed a pass-fail option nearly two years ago, one of its major goals was encouraging experimentation with courses outside a student's own field of concentration. But as of now, Music I seems to be the only definite success by this standard.

Fewer than one-tenth of the normalsized Economics I enrollment probably will take the course pass-fail; and in several other courses, where official tallies have not been made, few students have requested enrollment on a pass-fail basis.

On the other hand, Music I enrollment jumped from 275 to about 325 this year. Head section man Lowell E. Lindgren yesterday attributed "some of the increase" to pass-fail students. Over 100 applied to take Music I pass-fail, and the course staff decided Saturday to accept all of them, because of what Lindgren called the students' "convincing reasons."

In Ec I's normal enrollment of over 700, 50 to 70 will be on a pass-fail basis. Course head Otto Eckstein said that only freshmen who might concentrate in Economics could not take Ec I pass-fail.

Faculty in several other popular courses-Fine Arts 13, Government 154, and Fine Arts 170--reported some increases in enrollment this year but did not see pass-fail as a cause. Although there was no formal count, fewer than 20 students asked permission to take Fine Arts 13 pass-fail, and in both Gov 154 and Fine Arts 170, only two or three did so.