The structure of the Introduction to the Humanities Program may get a face-lift for the second year in a row, with options like a three-quarter sequence and smaller courses under consideration.

Under a proposal approved by the Faculty Senate last Thursday, faculty may experiment with the structure of courses in the Introduction to the Humanities (IHUM) program for three years, starting in the 2008-09 academic year

Students who complete the experimental courses will receive full credit for satisfying the first-year General Education Requirement.

Russell Berman, director of the IHUM program and a professor of comparative literature and German studies, said that there are a couple of ideas already in the works, including extending the IHUM sequence to three-quarters. IHUM students currently enroll in a fall quarter course and a separate winter and spring quarter sequence.

“One idea that has come up has been a single, three-quarter sequence,” Berman said. “Instead of a one plus two sequence, we want to have something that builds on thirty weeks of instruction. It would be similar to the SLE [Structured Liberal Education] program, which has proven itself to be very successful.”

Berman added that individual IHUMs may limit their enrollment to 50 or 60 students per program, with a greater focus on incorporating various areas of seemingly non-related disciplines.

“A second idea would be to explore whether we could have smaller IHUMs, where the difference between lectures and sections may not be as great,” he said.

He further proposed that IHUM courses may incorporate disciplines that have not been traditionally included.

“Imagine IHUM developing as a venue for dialogue between humanities and sciences or other parts of the University,” he said. “It would still be an introduction to the humanities, but humanists and natural scientists would be able to talk and learn from each other.”

Berman said that although these experiments were designed to improve the IHUM program, he admitted to the possibility of some failures.

“I don’t know if all of these experiments will succeed,” he said, “but we would like to try and learn from them.”

Berman said that the idea for greater flexibility within the program resulted from a survey students completed in January of last year.

Between 5,000 and 5,500 surveys about the IHUM program were distributed and 1,400 were returned. In addition to filling out the survey, 900 students gave qualitative responses.

“What came out of the study was a series of ideas that are different from what IHUM has been in the past — and which we want to try out,” Berman said.

Major changes have already taken place as a result of the survey, including a reduction in section times from 90 minutes to 50 minutes.

“We learned from the self-study that the length of sections was an enormous irritant to most students because it blocked people’s schedules, it was difficult to get enough rooms and so on,” Berman said. “While they were often wonderful, they were also often less than wonderful.”

Berman added that, so far, responses to the changes that have already been made have been uniformly positive.

“I’m convinced that we are making progress in IHUM, which has been integral to the Stanford tradition,” he said. “I know a lot of students [who] love IHUM and a lot of students who resent it. There will always be students who resent requirements, but what I’m hearing is greater appreciation for the opportunities that IHUM is presenting to the freshmen class. And I’d like to build on that with a wider range of courses.”

In general, students reacted positively to the potential changes Berman discussed.

“I really hated IHUM fall quarter, so I’m glad that I could switch out for the next two quarters,” said Michael Wheet ‘11. “I think it is important to have the chance to change your IHUM if you really don’t like it.”

Jean Ansolabehere ‘11 said that a smaller lecture size would make learning more effective and allow for greater student-professor interaction.

“I really enjoy section, but I feel like lectures are so anonymous that it is really easy for people to have hugely different experiences,” she said.