A Proposal for the Core

To the Editors of The Crimson:

As students, we find the proposed core curriculum unpleasant and unappetizing. Perhaps the most offensive aspect of the proposal is the assumption that the Harvard Faculty, in its collective wisdom, is entitled to define a well-rounded student. We would like to propose a small test for Dean Rosovsky, Professor of Government Stanley H. Hoffmann, and any other self-proclaimed "Renaissance men" who support the core curriculum. We suggest that sample final examinations be composed for each of the proposed core courses, and that these examinations be administered to all those harbingers of the "new era in undergraduate education." The completed examination booklets would be published for the amusement of the student body. Naturally, any Faculty member who failed to get an honors grade on every exam would not only be disenfranchised for the purpose of the core curriculum vote, but would also be required to spend his/her next sabbatical acquiring the liberal arts education that he/she was so ready to shove down our throats. None of this would apply, of course, to those members of the Faculty who oppose the core curriculum; we thank them for their lack of condescension toward their students. Mary Katherine Blackwood '79   Alan Turner '79