Coles Issues Challenge on Service Project

Pushing the issue of public service in the curriculum to the force, Dr. Robert Coles '50, a popular professor and best-selling author, has issued Harvard a challenge: back a service program he recently proposed, or lose his services as a teacher.

"I'm hopeful things will work out," said Coles, who is a professor of psychiatry and medical humanities. "Obviously, if things don't work, I would leave."

"I have not made any statements as to whether or not I'll be teaching [in the future] because I do not know what the answer will be," he said.

Coles is the professor of one of the most popular classes at Harvard, General Education 105: "The Literature of Social Reflection."

The Pulitzer Prize winner has written more than 50 books, including Children of Crisis and The Moral Life of Children. He is also a research psychiatrist for the University Health Services.

The proposal Coles has presented to President Neil L. Rudenstine asks for University backing to get more professors involved with undergraduate students working in youth enrichment summer programs run by Phillips Brooks House Association (PBHA).

In an interview yesterday, Coles stressed that he wasn't giving the University a "threat." He said he has so far been encouraged by his discussions with Rudenstine and expects a final decision in the next month or two.

"I think there is a genuine enthusiasm in getting it going on the part of the President," Coles said. "I am not threatening to leave, I'm trying to help make that program come into being. If it doesn't come into being. I'll think about giving up."

Rudenstine was traveling yesterday, and a spokesperson said that he was unavailable for comment.

Coles stated clearly that if his request was rejected, Harvard would be losing a University icon.

"If it didn't work out, I'd be very disappointed and I would try to find a place and a situation where it would work out," he said.

But Coles repeatedly emphasized he was optimistic about the program's chances. He said he "hopes and expects to stay and do this kind of work supported by the administration.

"If the whole plan weren't possible I would think of what I should do and where I should do it, but I keep trying to say to myself and others that I'm hopeful, more than hopeful, that this will work out," he said.

In addition, a source close to Coles said the professor has had discussions with officials at both Duke and Brown. The source said he was not sure whether Coles was formally seeking jobs there.

In a meeting on Tuesday with his section leaders for Gen Ed 105, Coles was asked about the rumor that he was planning to leave. According to teaching fellow Tyler Chapman, Coles said: "I don't know if that rumor is true."

The Project

Coles said he is ecstatic about the public service project.

"Right now, it's been a mainstay of my life and been the most exciting kind of teaching and challenging teaching I've ever done," he said.

Under the program, about 100 Harvard undergraduates work in Boston and Cambridge public housing projects and "operate schools and cultural enrichment programs for children between ages of seven and 13, and PBH Executive Director Gregory A. Johnson '72.

Coles said he has spent the last two summers working with undergraduates involved in the community work and performing "reflective sessions," according to Johnson.

These sessions help undergraduates "reflect on the reasons they are engaged in this public service and helps them provide context for what they are doing in ethical and sociological terms," Johnson said.

"I attended some of the sessions myself and they were not only practical and very moving, but they were more intellectually engaging than what I've seen in more formal contexts," Johnson said.

Coles said he wants professors to join the program and participate in weekly seminars with undergraduates. He said he went to Rudenstine with his proposal because "[faculty] will need the support of the University.

"We hope to have weekly seminars with the students to take place on site where they are living." Coles said. "The discussion will center on the experience they are having and reading they are doing--short stories, poems, essays, with the kind of issues they are living firsthand."

Johnson said University backing would be a significant help to the program.

"We are hoping that he doesn't leave," Johnson said. "We have some of the most sophisticated human service programs in the nation presently in operation and we understand quite specifically how to enrich them with this type of reflective component and how to enrich undergraduate education with this type of marriage."

"It would be supreme irony not to take advantage of this moment upon us and it would also be a terribly missed opportunity," Johnson said.

Service Learning

Coles has been perhaps Harvard's strongest advocate of service learning. The professor has twice proposed core classes that would have required community service, according to Johnson. Each proposal was rejected by a faculty committee.

Coles has been the "main person trying to push for service learning," said John B. King Jr. '96-'95, president of PBHA. "If he leaves, there won't be very many people trying to make it happen."

While he has been rebuffed here, Coles has been welcomed at Brown University. He is currently working to develop a partnership at Brown between the Swearer Center for Public Service and the School of Medicine, according to Peter C. Hocking, the Swearer Center's director.

Coles was actually at Brown last night talking to medical students about "performing community-based service through the center," said Barbara K. Fuller, Brown's curriculum coordinator.

Fuller said she was not sure if Coles had been offered a job as a full-time faculty member.

Duke's dean of the faculty of arts and sciences, Roy Weintraub, did not return a call seeking comment.

But Coles has ties to Duke. He was a visiting professor of public policy at the North Carolina school in 1973, and he is a co-founder and current member of the Board of Directors of Duke's Center for Documentary Studies.

Popular Teacher

If Coles leaves, students may be deprived of listening to his lectures in Gen Ed 105, which has an annual enrollment of about 500.

A recent CUE Guide reported that students have described Coles in "glowing terms." The guide also said that undergraduates who took the class suggested Gen Ed 105 should be a requirement for all Harvard students, "as it provides an incredibly fulfilling educational and personal experience."

Coles said that Gen Ed 105 is an important part of his life, and he would like to continue teaching it.

Coles also teaches a "very popular elective course" at Harvard Medical School on literature and medicine, according to S. James Adelstein, executive dean for academic programs there. "That's been a real contribution and we would miss that," Adelstein said yesterday.

In addition to offering courses in the Medical School and the Faculty of Arts and Sciences, Coles has led classes at the Business School, Law School, Graduate School of Education and Harvard Extension School.

Sarah J. Schaffer and Sarah E. Scrogin contributed to the reporting of this story.

The Project

Coles said he is ecstatic about the public service project.

"Right now, it's been a mainstay of my life and been the most exciting kind of teaching and challenging teaching I've ever done," he said.

Under the program, about 100 Harvard undergraduates work in Boston and Cambridge public housing projects and "operate schools and cultural enrichment programs for children between ages of seven and 13, and PBH Executive Director Gregory A. Johnson '72.

Coles said he has spent the last two summers working with undergraduates involved in the community work and performing "reflective sessions," according to Johnson.

These sessions help undergraduates "reflect on the reasons they are engaged in this public service and helps them provide context for what they are doing in ethical and sociological terms," Johnson said.

"I attended some of the sessions myself and they were not only practical and very moving, but they were more intellectually engaging than what I've seen in more formal contexts," Johnson said.

Coles said he wants professors to join the program and participate in weekly seminars with undergraduates. He said he went to Rudenstine with his proposal because "[faculty] will need the support of the University.

"We hope to have weekly seminars with the students to take place on site where they are living." Coles said. "The discussion will center on the experience they are having and reading they are doing--short stories, poems, essays, with the kind of issues they are living firsthand."

Johnson said University backing would be a significant help to the program.

"We are hoping that he doesn't leave," Johnson said. "We have some of the most sophisticated human service programs in the nation presently in operation and we understand quite specifically how to enrich them with this type of reflective component and how to enrich undergraduate education with this type of marriage."

"It would be supreme irony not to take advantage of this moment upon us and it would also be a terribly missed opportunity," Johnson said.

Service Learning

Coles has been perhaps Harvard's strongest advocate of service learning. The professor has twice proposed core classes that would have required community service, according to Johnson. Each proposal was rejected by a faculty committee.

Coles has been the "main person trying to push for service learning," said John B. King Jr. '96-'95, president of PBHA. "If he leaves, there won't be very many people trying to make it happen."

While he has been rebuffed here, Coles has been welcomed at Brown University. He is currently working to develop a partnership at Brown between the Swearer Center for Public Service and the School of Medicine, according to Peter C. Hocking, the Swearer Center's director.

Coles was actually at Brown last night talking to medical students about "performing community-based service through the center," said Barbara K. Fuller, Brown's curriculum coordinator.

Fuller said she was not sure if Coles had been offered a job as a full-time faculty member.

Duke's dean of the faculty of arts and sciences, Roy Weintraub, did not return a call seeking comment.

But Coles has ties to Duke. He was a visiting professor of public policy at the North Carolina school in 1973, and he is a co-founder and current member of the Board of Directors of Duke's Center for Documentary Studies.

Popular Teacher

If Coles leaves, students may be deprived of listening to his lectures in Gen Ed 105, which has an annual enrollment of about 500.

A recent CUE Guide reported that students have described Coles in "glowing terms." The guide also said that undergraduates who took the class suggested Gen Ed 105 should be a requirement for all Harvard students, "as it provides an incredibly fulfilling educational and personal experience."

Coles said that Gen Ed 105 is an important part of his life, and he would like to continue teaching it.

Coles also teaches a "very popular elective course" at Harvard Medical School on literature and medicine, according to S. James Adelstein, executive dean for academic programs there. "That's been a real contribution and we would miss that," Adelstein said yesterday.

In addition to offering courses in the Medical School and the Faculty of Arts and Sciences, Coles has led classes at the Business School, Law School, Graduate School of Education and Harvard Extension School.

Sarah J. Schaffer and Sarah E. Scrogin contributed to the reporting of this story.