K-School Ponders Changes

Dean of the Kennedy School Joseph S. Nye announced earlier this month plans to re-evaluate the core curriculum of the masters in public policy (MPP) program at the school.

The review committee, led by MPP Faculty Chair Jose A. Gomez-Ibanez, will be composed of about 25 members, including four students.

The committee will announce its findings in May 1997.

The committee will consider two options for the core's overhaul. It will either form an eight-course core that would leave room for two electives in the first year, or it will create a "tracked" core that would allow students to specialize in a methodological track their second semester.

While the core is presently divided between quantitative and qualitative requirements, many of the students are eager to replace these requirements with more electives.

"Everybody reads the catalogue, thinks it sounds good and then doesn't realize that they will be doing problem sets until 1 a.m. every night," said Amon Rappaport, a second-year MPP student, in an article in The Citizen, the Kennedy School's newspaper.

"Generally, MPP's are being asked to take the administration's word that these are the core foundations of the field," Rappaport said. "I don't mean to sound like an eat-your-vegetables person, but if you are fresh out of college, you don't take the core curriculum as seriously."

But several professors argue that core work is necessary.

"Students always say the core has one too many things, no matter how many classes there are," said Herman B. "Dutch" Leonard, the Kennedy School's academic dean for teaching programs.