MIT Reports to the President 1999–2000

HUMANITIES, ARTS, AND SOCIAL SCIENCES OFFICE

There have been several innovations in the HASS Office during the past year which have made it possible to disseminate and store data more efficiently, as well as to improve our ability to accomplish other tasks. Freshmen

will be able to enter the HASS-D Lottery on the Web this summer for the first time, with the paper forms as a backup. A new Filemaker database for Course 21 majors makes it possible to keep track of these majors over the years. New websites have been created for such things as HASS CI (Communication Intensive) course criteria and answers to questions frequently asked by freshmen concerning the HASS-D Lottery. Most of the appropriate subjects taken by MIT undergraduates at Harvard under the cross-registration program are now automatically coded as HASS, saving students the trouble of petitioning each one and staff the time spent approving and processing those petitions. The HASS Office has established a database containing these subjects which will be updated as additional subjects are coded. In addition, this office maintains the Web list of HASS CI courses and reports to the Writing Requirement Office those students who have completed Phase I of the Writing Requirement based on their performance in a HASS CI class.

The HASS Overview Committee, on which the Coordinator, Dr. Bette Davis, serves as ex officio, had another busy year. In addition to reviewing HASS-D proposals in the fall and taking care of other routine business, the Committee spent some time on the issue of HASS Communication Intensive (CI) courses. As noted above, the HASS Office has major administrative responsibility for the HASS CI system in the current pilot phase.

ENROLLMENT STATISTICS BY FIELD AND SUBJECT

Total enrollments in all HASS subjects were stable–10,132, compared to10,091 in AY1999. The number of HASS subjects offered was also stable–478, compared to 476 in 1998—99–while the number of autonomous sections increased from 582 to 609. The number of HASS-D subjects taught was almost exactly the same, 118, compared to 117 last year. The largest overall enrollments were in the same fields as last year, in the same order: 1745 in Economics (down slightly from 1795 last year) and 1509 in Foreign Languages and Literatures (up from 1324 last year). Writing (990) was again third, followed by Literature (920), Music (721, six-unit music performance subjects are not included in these statistics), and History (663). (*Archaeology had the largest increase over last year in terms of percentage (from 122 to 147, or 20%), followed by History of Art and Architecture (from 127 to 150, or 18%) and Foreign Languages and Literatures (14%, from 1324 to 1509).

In 1999—2000, students submitted 2229 HASS Concentration proposals and 1267 completion forms, compared to 2293 proposals and 1274 completion forms last year. Once again, Economics and Foreign Languages led in the number of completed HASS Concentrations: in 1999-2000, 367 (compared to 357 last year) students completed concentrations in Economics, and 236 completed concentrations in Foreign Languages and Literatures, compared to 220 last year. (For a breakdown by languages, see Table II.) The next two most popular HASS Concentration fields are Music, with 109 completed concentrations, and Psychology, with 70, followed by History (63), Writing (56), and Literature (54).

1999—2000 showed a decrease in the total number of HASS Minor applications from all graduating classes; however, the number of HASS Minors received by the Class of 2000 was stable–225, compared to 223 last year. There were 414 applications, compared to 475 last year and 483 in 1997—98. The 225 HASS minors received by members of the Class of ’00 were in twenty-one fields. The two most popular fields in terms of applications filed were the same as last year: Economics (151) and Music (51). There were 42 minors in Foreign Languages (17 in French, 14 in German, and 11 in Spanish). Other popular HASS Minors were Writing (25), and Literature and Political Science, with 20 apiece.

The number of MIT undergraduates cross-registered for courses at Harvard decreased in 1999—2000. 204 students took 220 subjects at Harvard, compared to 233 students enrolled in 253 subjects in 1998—99. Last year there was a sizable increase in these enrollments; they seem to fluctuate for no obvious reason. As usual, foreign languages were by far the most popular field of study. 122 of the 220 subjects were in 21 different foreign languages. The three most popular languages were Chinese (19), French (15) and Urdu-Hindi (15). These were followed by Sanskrit (10), Korean (9), and Russian (8). Enrollments in other languages were spread fairly evenly. The most popular fields outside foreign languages were Government (12) and Art/Visual Studies (10).

94 students received the S.B. in SHSS this year, down from 101 last year. Of these, 53 degrees were in Economics (Course 14) and 8 were in Political Science (Course 17). During the same time period, September 1999 through June 2000, a total of 29 students completed the S.B. Degree in Humanities (Course 21). Nine of these received joint degrees, 5 in 21-E and 4 in 21-S. Another 20 received degrees in a specified field within Course 21. Three students received the S.B. in Philosophy and one received the S.B. in Linguistics and Philosophy (Course 24).

The four departments in SHSS had 146 undergraduate majors this year; this figure includes only first degrees. Ninety-three of these are majoring in Economics, and the Political Science Department has 15 majors. Forty students had a Humanities major as their first degree in 1999—2000; of these, 17 were joint majors (11 in 21-E and 6 in 21-S.) Of the specified majors within Humanities, Literature and Writing had the most majors, with 5 each. Nine undergraduates have declared a major in Philosophy or in Linguistics and Philosophy.

Among the more notable honors achieved by SHSS majors this year were:

• Boit Manuscript Prize First Place in Drama, Thomas Cork, ’00;
• First Place in Poetry, Moana Minton, ’01
• Burchard Scholars Daniel Berger, ’01; Simone Berkowitz, ’02; Irena Goldenberg, ’01; Douglas Kriner, ’01; Laura Moulton, ’01; Dawn Pelner, ’01; Philip Tan, ’01
• Chemistry Undergraduate Research Award Krzystof Rybak, ’00
• John S. Hollywood Award Edgar Martinez, ’00
• I. Austin Kelly III Prizes Jason Krug, ’00, Philip Osafo-Kwaako, ’01
• Philip Loew Memorial Award Daniel Jochelson,’00; John McKay, ’00; Ivan Middleton, ’01
• MIT Symphony Orchestra Concerto Competition Special Mention, Ivan Middleton, ’01
• Ragnar and Margaret Naess Awards Dawn Perlner, ’01
• Phi Beta Kappa James Berry, ’00; Petros Boufounos, ’00; Christopher Brocoum, ’00; Jasper Chen, ’00; Paul Crowley, ’00; Anupam Jena, ’00; Jason Krug, ’00; Stacey Schreiber, ’00; Simon Tisminezky, ’00
• Prize for Excellence in Economics Writing Cristina Estrada, ’01
• Prize for Writing Science Fiction Honorable mention, Anthony Julian, ’00
• Jeremy D. Sher Award Christopher Rezek, ’00
• Louis Sudler Prize Thomas Cork, ’00
• Gregory Tucker Memorial Prize Laurel Smith, ’00
• Laya and Jerome B. Wiesner Award Jason Krug, ’00; Sean Sutherland, ’00

Bette Davis

Table 1. Enrollment In Humanities And Social Science Subjects, 1999—2000

Notes:

1. Figures were obtained from the MITSIS system, which shows the final tally for each class.

2. The numbers shown are for undergraduate subjects which normally satisfy the HASS Requirement; they do not include subjects allowed by petition.

3. (#Sections) refers to the number of autonomous class sections; it does not apply to subjects which meet in a single lecture and divide into discussion sections.

4. For joint subjects, figures are given for the subject number under which students enrolled.

5. HASS-D Language Option subjects (Level III or IV languages) are included in the HASS-D figures

* Music and Theater Arts 6-unit performance subjects are not included in these statistics.

Table 2. Concentrations In All The Fields Of Humanities And Social Science, June 2000

* The parenthetic figure is the number of proposed concentrations in the given class and field; the figure to its right is the number of these concentrations that have been completed.

** Figures for subfields of Foreign Languages and Literatures are below:

Table 3. Undergraduate Majors

*These figures do not include double majors who registered first in a course other than Humanities. (If you include double majors, the figure is 54.)

Table 4. Graduate Students

*Comparative Media Studies (CMS) — 1999-00 is the first year of the new graduate program.

Table 5. HASS Minor Applicants For Classes Of 2000—2003

MIT Reports to the President 1999–2000