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Pforzheimer University Professor Sidney Verba chaired the committee that reviewed the Core.Photograph by Jim Harrison |
A "working paper" released in March by a committee of six professors and two undergraduates proposes changes to the College's Core Curriculum, the basic set of non-concentration requirements that students from the early 1980s on have had to meet in order to graduate. The committee's most notable recommendations are a new course requirement in Quantitative Reasoning (to replace the current test-out option) and a reduction in the total number of required Core courses from eight to seven.
The Faculty Council, a body elected from the ranks of the faculty, reviewed and forwarded the proposed changes to the full Faculty of Arts and Sciences (FAS) for discussion at its April meeting. Although a debate is anticipated, participants at the council meeting expect the faculty will eventually approve the changes, which could be implemented in time to affect the class of 2001.
Prepared over the last eight months by a Core Review Committee (CRC) chaired by Pforzheimer University Professor Sidney Verba, the working paper includes historical background on the development of the Core during the deanship of Henry Rosovsky in the 1970s, and on the General Education program it replaced; an articulate defense of the Core today, responding to input from faculty, students, and recent alumni; and a consideration of the full range of options for change, including the dissolution of the Core, modifications to its present form, and its replacement with either a distribution or a "great books" requirement.
Some faculty members, however, have said the working paper neither considers nor justifies the implications of its own recommendations. The proposals to add Quantitative Reasoning while scaling back the number of required Core courses, if taken together, could reduce enrollments in Literature and Arts and in History Core classes by as much as 20 percent, and will shift the Core's current balance of humanities and science requirements.
But FAS dean Jeremy Knowles says the changes should not be framed as part of a "two-culture" discussion. "The question is not, How should seven mandatory courses be distributed? The question is, What should be the shape of the 32 courses of a Harvard curriculum?" says Knowles. "These seven courses will be determined by the principle of 'remoteness' from the concentration." (Typically, concentration requirements account for half the 32 courses required to graduate.) English concentrators, for example, would be required to include Quantitative Reasoning, Physical Science, and Life Science among their mandatory Core courses, while concentrators in astronomy would be required to take courses in History, Literature, and Foreign Cultures, thereby adding balance to every student's overall academic experience.
Defending the proposed new Quantitative Reasoning requirement, which could include courses in demographics, political science, econometrics, risk, and probability, Knowles says, "We should be derelict, looking into the next century, if we did not assure ourselves that all our students are able to think logically and analytically, and are able to handle the more quantitative and technological aspects of tomorrow's society." That way, Knowles continues, "When our undergraduate is a senator in 2020, she will truly be able to ask the penetrating questions about the problems that Congress and the country have to face."
Student complaints about the difficulty of fitting certain Core requirements into their schedules led to the CRC's recommendation that the required number of Core courses be reduced. Calling this a "legitimate gripe," CRC chairman Verba notes that only one Moral Reasoning course was offered this spring.
The student-proposed solution to too few courses involves a system of "bypasses" that would allow certain departmental courses to be counted toward the Core requirement. Verba, who does not fully agree with this approach, calls the student recommendations "thoughtful and responsible," and has forwarded them to the faculty along with the CRC's "preliminary proposals" because he felt that they "would make for a better debate."
Practical objections to the student-proposed system of departmental bypasses were voiced by faculty members and administrators alike. The Core curriculum makes extra demands on professors who teach in it: Core courses, unlike departmental courses, are subject to peer review; they often require difficult-to-assemble sourcebooks of eclectic material; and, because of their size, they require management skill. Says professor of Chinese history and Faculty Council member Peter Bol, "When you teach a Core course, you teach two classes at once: a graduate pedagogy seminar and the course itself." The process of creating a course for the Core can take as long as two to three years, according to Susan Lewis, director of the Core program. Some professors have already declined to bring their courses into the Core. Knowles worries that professors won't "go to the trouble of making a Core course if they can teach it as a department course." Bypasses, he warns, "brought down the General Education program."
The ideal solution to student concerns would be to increase the number of Core courses--which would require additional faculty resources. Asked whether he envisioned spending more money on the Core as a result of the CRC's proposals, Knowles says he has "some hope that we can reduce section size in the Core," a recommendation of the CRC's working paper. (Section sizes increased during the budget emergency of the early 1990s, but have stabilized now that the structural deficit has been addressed.) Furthermore, he says, "In the assignment of new faculty positions from the Campaign to particular departments I shall, of course, take into account the overall teaching needs of the faculty so that, for example, those [departments] that contribute particularly strongly to the Core are given appropriate priority in the allocation of new faculty positions." (The creation of 40 new professorships is a goal of the University Campaign). Smaller departments such as philosophy, music, and fine arts would likely benefit from such an allocation.
The Core was originally created without any additional faculty resources, a remarkable achievement. The fact that 93 percent of Core courses are taught by senior faculty is another positive point not lost on students and alumni. Noting that Harvard's anecdotal reputation is that senior professors want to teach only those concentrators deeply interested in their field, Knowles says, "One of the achievements of the Core is that it is taking leading scholars and allowing non-concentrators to enjoy their lectures."
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