CUE Endorses Proposals Of Pedagogical Task Force

The Committee on Undergraduate Education (CUE) yesterday specifically endorsed three recommendations of the Faculty's Task Force Report on Pedagogical Improvement asking for the permanent establishment of a teaching center, the training of teaching fellows, and self-evaluations of departmental programs and courses.

The CUE endorsed the report's recommendations at the encouragement of the Educational Resources Group (ERG), an all-student advisory group to the CUE. Members of the ERG fear the Faculty, which heard the report at its last meeting, may ignore some of the report's recommendations, CUE members said yesterday.

CUE student members withdrew a resolution which stated that, in some cases, faculty departments should put more emphasis on a professor's teaching ability when making tenure decisions Student CUE members were afraid that faculty members of the CUE would not vote for such a resolution.

Impressions

CUE faculty member Wallace T. MacCaffrey, professor of History, said during the session that determining teaching ability is impressionistic and research ability is more tangible ground on which to tenure a professor.

CUE faculty members added that departments encounter difficulties in trying to determine the teaching ability of a professor who does not teach at Harvard, yet is under consideration for tenure.

Glen W. Bowersock '57, associate dean of the Faculty for undergraduate education and chairman of CUE, said that currently "the best scholar in the field is looked for, but before the appointment we make a careful examination of this person's teaching ability."

Bowersock added, however, that to allow teaching ability to take priority over research ability "is a major proposal and one should be aware of that."

The ERG may re-write the tenure resolution and present it at a later CUE meeting, CUE student members said.

Congratulations

The CUE resolution concerning the training of teaching fellows states, "Since teaching fellows conduct most of the small group instruction at Harvard, it is disappointing to see that they all do not receive thorough and rigorous preparations."

The resolution goes on to commend the Economics Department for its training of Economics 10 section leaders and encourages all departments to follow its example.

The resolution pertaining to the per- manent establishment of a teaching center would essentially relieve the existing Danforth Center for Excellence in Teaching of the responsibility of finding funds on an annual basis.

The resolution dealing with self-evaluations states, "Active self-evaluations conducted in each department and course, eliciting input from the faculty, teaching fellows, and students, could generate new ideas and solve persistent problems."

The CUE also began drafting legislation, to be presented to the full Faculty early next year, reforming the existing tutorial system in undergraduate concentrations. However, the CUE did not vote on any specifics of the legislation last night