Core Standing Committee Holds First Meeting Today

The Standing Committee on the Core Curriculum, recently appointed by Dean Rosovsky, will meet for the first time today to begin setting up the Core program outlined in legislation the Faculty passed last spring.

Rosovsky said yesterday he intended the nine Faculty members on the committee to represent a range of fields.

The committee is made up of the chairmen of seven Core subcommittees--one for each Core area of study, plus expository writing and the math requirement. In addition, Paul C. Martin '52, dean of the Division of Applied Sciences, and Edward L. Keenan '57, associate dean of the Faculty, serve as exofficio members; and two students appointed by the Education Resources Group are non-voting members.

Some Old Boys

Some of the committee members have already been heavily involved with the Core. James Q. Wilson, Shattuck Professor of Government, chaired the original task force on the Core set up in 1975. Wilson now heads the Social and Philosophical Analysis subcommittee.

Bernard Bailyn, Winthrop Professor of History and chairman of the new History subcommittee, was influential in defining the five areas of study the Faculty eventually approved, and in designing the History requirement.

Chairing the Mathematics and Science subcommittee is Otto T. Solbrig, professor of Biology, who was one of the sponsors of an amendment to the Core legislation which "authorizes and urges" the committees to experiment with possible plans to allow students limited options to bypass Core courses with departmental offerings.

The Core committees must still decide if and how to implement a by-pass plan.

Committee members yesterday were hesitant to speculate about possible courses of action until after they meet today to try to solve some organizational questions, and after Rosovsky appoints the remaining members of the subcommittees.

Some members of the committee have expressed differing views on Core issues. Solbrig, Walter Jackson Bate, Lowell Professor of the Humanities, and Glen W. Bowersock '57, associate dean of the Faculty and chairman of the Expos subcommittee, said yesterday they strongly support the by-pass proposal and "floater" plan that would allow students to transfer one half-course of the Core requirement to another field of study.

Like the by-pass, the fate of the floater plan is also in the hands of the committees.

Bate chairs the subcommittee on Literature and the Arts.

Wilson, who could ot be reached for comment yesterday, expressed opposition to the by-pass plan in an April meeting, saying it might "convert a carefully conceived opportunity for flexibility into a generalized departmental by-pass."

Solbrig said yesterday he was "sympathetic" to the view of some science professors that the Core did not require enough science and mathematics.

Martin heads the Division of Applied Sciences, which last spring voted informally, 23-3, to oppose the Core because it requires so little science and might discourage "the better students" from attending Harvard.

But Martin said yesterday past differences probably will not divide committee members. "Independent of how they felt before, the question, now that the Core is legislation, is how to put together the program."

Keenan, who is also dean of the Graduate School of Arts and Sciences (GSAS), said yesterday he will be particularly involved in Core issues affecting GSAS, including the problems of finding teaching fellows for Core courses and the impact on graduate programs of the teaching load graduate students will have to carry.

Of the seven subcommittees, only the Math and Expos committees are fully formed. The Expos subcommittee met for the first time yesterday and heard Robert Marius, director of Expository Writing, discuss ideas for affiliating Expos sections with Core courses, Bowersock said.

Andrew M. Gleason, Hollis Professor of Mathematics and chairman of the Math subcommittee, said yesterday his group had hoped to present a preliminary report at today's committee meeting recommending how to implement a Math requirement, but the subcommittee will not be able to report until they gather more data.

Ezra F. Vogel, professor of Sociology, will serve as chairman of the Foreign Languages and Cultures subcommitte