Fine Arts Committee Reviews Graduate School Curriculum

A committee reviewing the graduate program in Fine Arts will recommend changes in the program's sequence and assess its curriculum in a report it expects to submit to the department of Fine Arts in April.

Sheila Bonde, a graduate student in Fine Arts, and one of seven committee members, said yesterday the committee is reviewing the sequence all doctoral candidates currently follow: two years of course work, a qualifying paper, general examinations, travel and research, and a final thesis.

"We may change the form and timing of the general exams," she said, adding that the committee's aim is to "streamline the whole graduate process."

Curricular topics under review include minor fields of study and museum training. Oleg Grabar, chairman of the department, said yesterday, calling the current museum training "half-baked, for the time being."

Henri Zerner, professor of Fine Arts and the committee's chairman, said yesterday he had just returned from New York City, where he met with fine arts professors at Columbia and New York University to compare notes.

All seven committee members--three graduate students and four Fine Arts professors--have been interviewing students and faculty from several Harvard departments since last fall, and reporting their findings at committee meetings.

The committee was formed in the fall out of concern that graduate students' training is "too narrow" Grabar said yesterday. He added that the program has not been reviewed for ten years.