Independent Study

IF THE Faculty follows the advice of its Committee on Educational Policy (and it almost always does) Independent Study will be run on a more liberal set of rules next fall. Independent Study will join pass-fail as an option open to any sophomore, junior or senior who wants to break away from the conventional lineup of graded lecture courses. Projects will not be automatically approved under the new system and the number of students who can take Independent Studies will be limited by the amount of time Faculty members find to supervise these one-man courses. But the CEP (and the Harvard Policy Committee which initiated the reform) can take bows for making Independent Study as well-known and open as its cousin, the Freshman Seminar program.

The quick approval which the new rules won from the CEP last Tuesday shows just how effective the HPC's audit technique is. Independent Study has turned into something very different from what administrators had assumed it was, and though the HPC audit of last November didn't say that explicitly, its conclusions clearly showed how the program was hamstrung by outdated regulations. The audits are able to flush out information on just how well programs are working--information which the CEP would not otherwise have. And an audit can turn vague student discontent about any part of Harvard's education into a well-substantiated case for specific reform. The HPC should continue to exploit this clever mechanism as it pushes for more education in the Houses and still larger changes in what and how Harvard teaches.