Core Must Expand Offerings

Harvard instituted the Core Curriculum 15 years ago because the general education program did not meet the needs of the modern intellectual world. Today, that Core Curriculum has become a bane to many students. The Undergraduate Council has even formed a Core Reform committee. All the problems in the Core originate from two sources: there are not enough offerings within the Core and the classes offered are too specific. If the number and breadth of offerings were to be increased, students would be happier, the load on professors and teaching fellows would be lighter, and the Core would not seem as much of a burden as it does now.

Some students have suggested replacing the Core with distribution requirements. Distribution requirements, as they exist in other universities, would require students to take a number of courses from each department rather than setting aside specific courses for non-concentrators, as the Core does. However, the Core is an important part of Harvard's curriculum. Harvard asks its students to declare their concentrations at the end of their first year. This is very early compared to other universities. For that reason, most of the courses within a concentration are very focused for students within that concentration.

"It wasn't felt that a simple distribution requirement was adequate to meet the needs of nonconcentrating students," said Susan Lewis, director of the Core program. Nonconcentrating students would not be able to gain much from courses within a concentration and their choices would be limited to very introductory courses.

The Core, in theory, is a better choice for students to get a broad liberal arts education while adhering to the very focused concentration requirements. Rather than emphasizing subject matter, the Core aspires to introduce students to schools of thought and, as the Introduction to the Core Curriculum for Freshmen states, "major approaches to knowledge." In theory, therefore, the Core strives to acquaint students with different philosophies rather than forcing students to amass large amounts of material.

"Harvard has always felt it really needed to be very thorough about the courses students took outside their concentration," said Lewis.

But in practice, the Core is another matter. Because of the lack of offerings in the Core, students are very constrained. Literature and Arts C offered one course for the past fall semester. For any students needing to fulfill that requirement, there was no choice.

"You're getting a liberal arts education, but I wonder whether you're getting education in things that interest you," says Elizabeth A. Haynes '98, an undergraduate council representative and a member of the Science B Core committee. With a larger number of offerings, students would be able to find courses that interested them.

The larger course offerings in each topic would also improve other areas of the Core. It would decrease the number of students in each class and lighten the teaching load for professors and graduate students. The lighter load would mean a better education in the class for students.

"When the enrollment in a section exceeds 15, a student is deprived of a beneficial learning experience. Moreover, a teaching fellow can't give as much attention to each student," said proctor and teaching fellow William Carroll. Since the Core acquaints students with schools of thought, it undoubtedly teaches best in discussion sections when students are allowed to share their ideas. A large number of students in a section keeps students from sharing in that experience.

Not only would the learning be better, but the logistics of the Core would also be simpler. It would be easier to estimate the number of students in a class if there were a large number of offerings each year, because the number would not fluctuate wildly according to the number of offerings in a particular field. Books and teaching fellows would be available from the first day of class.

Students should also be given some responsibility for choosing their own education; they are given so few choices for classes in view of the restrictions on Core classes and concentration requirements. To get a true liberal arts education, they should be trusted to choose their own courses with a little guidance (the idea behind distribution requirements).

The Core could allow students that freedom as well as keeping the students' best interests at heart by insuring them a broad education with a larger number of course offerings.

To become an integral part of a student's education and more than just a chore, the Core needs to improve itself and adhere to its original philosophy. Simply, the Core needs to increase the number of offerings to keep students' best interests at heart.