Taking The Long View

What could well be Rosovsky's most important announcement of the year came on a snowy night in February at a Lowell House dinner, where he happened to mention that he will appoint a committee to prepare a report evaluating undergraduate education.

The last time that happened, with the University Committee on the Objectives of General Education in a Free Society, it shaped the Harvard education for 30 years. The committee produced a report known as the Redbook that led to the present Gen Ed program and course requirements, and generally changed the face of American college education.

The New Redbook Committee, as it has is known, is not off the ground yet, but it has clearly become Rosovsky's pet project. He plans to work on it all summer and, with his lightened duties, next year as well. If all goes as planned, the committee's work will be what Rosovsky's deanship will be remembered for after budgetary hassles and organizational problems and new calendars are long forgotten.