Text of the GE Proposals

At the meeting of the Faculty of Arts and Sciences held on October 30, 1945, a vote was passed in which the Faculty expressed "its approval of the principle and program of General Education in Harvard College as recommended in Sections 4, 5 and 6 of Chapter V of the Report of the University Committee on the Objectives of a General Education in a Free Society." The vote requested the President to appoint a Committee on General Education and authorized that Committee to offer courses in General Education on an experimental basis beginning in September 1946. The vote also imposed upon the Committee responsibility for recommending to the Faculty such changes as may be "necessary to effect the transition to the vote, and after extended discussions of the problems involved in effecting the transition, the Committee on General Education unanimously offers the following motions:

I. That student entering in the Class of 1953 (those entering in the fall of 1949) shall take at least one elementary course in General Education, the course to be taken either in the freshman or in the sophomore year, and to count toward fulfilling the distribution requirements, which requirements shall remain in their present form.

II. That students entering with the Class of 1954 (those entering in the fall of 1950) shall take at least two elementary courses in General Education during the freshman or sophomore year, such courses to count toward the distribution requirements.

III. That beginning with the Class of 1955 all students shall follow the General Education program as adopted by vote of the Faculty, October 30, 1945. Under this program all students are required to take six courses in General Education. These are to be distributed as follows:

1. Three elementary courses in General Education, one to be chosen from each of the areas (Humanities, Social Scinces, and Natural Sciences). These elementary courses are to be taken during the freshman and sophomore years. Four such courses may be counted by any student who elects elementary courses in both Physical Sciences and Biological Science. It is understood that the Committee on General Education will offer at least two alternative elementary courses in the Humanities, Social Sciences, Physical Sciences, and Biological Science.

2. Additional courses in the General Education program outside the student's department of concentration to achieve a total of six. Not more than two of the six courses may be in the area in which the department of concentration falls.

3. The courses selected to fulfill this requirement, in addition to the elementary courses in General Education, shall be chosen from the list of second group courses offered by the Committee on General Education, or from the courses offered by the several departments of this Faculty and approved for this purpose by the Committee on General Education after consultation with the departments. In exceptional cases, and with the approval of the Committee, properly qualified students may count for this purpose advanced department courses not on the list.

4. Exceptions to these requirements may be made on petition to the Committee on General Education.

IV. Beginning with the Class of 1955, all students, except those who are excused from required composition, or who elect to take English C. shall, in their freshman year, be enrolled in a non-credit half-course in composition.