CRC Outlines Core Reform Proposal

With the May 20 vote over Core curriculum reform just around the corner, yesterday's Faculty meeting had to be extended to accomodate debate over preliminary proposals and amendments.

Sidney Verba '53, chair of the Faculty's Core Review Committee (CRC), opened the debate, which consumed two hours of the meeting by introducing his committee's preliminary proposals.

The CRC is expected to present a modified version of this proposal for a vote by the full Faculty at their second May meeting.

The proposal calls for a Core course requirement in Quantitative Reasoning, with the total number of Core courses required remaining at eight--a departure from the Committee's "Working Paper," which called for a reduction to seven.

Second in the current proposal is a call for the Core program's committees to seek out departmental courses "that may be appropriate for inclusion in the Core," and the review of those committee's guidelines for allowing a course into the Core.

These initiatives would be included as a way to fulfill the CRC's pledge to provide "no fewer than six courses per term in each of the Core areas."

"We [the CRC] have sometimes felt like a tennis ball, being bounced back and forth between two very powerful players," Verba said, referring to the factions for and against departmental bypasses for Core requirements.

A set of amendments to the CRC proposal were also distributed at the meeting, asking for departmental courses to be included in the Core if they "meet the aims but not necessarily the detailed pedagogical guidelines" of a Core area.

"These amendments do not support unvetted bypasses in any way," said James Engell '73, professor of English and comparative literature and the amendments' principal advocate.

"The amendments' language keeps control in the hands of the Core committees," he said.

Mary Gaylord, chair of the department of romance languages and literature, was listed as a contributor to the amendments, and also spoke in favor of flexibility in Core course selection.

"I'm going to have a sampler with 'flexibilitas' on it embroidered," Gaylord said.

Verba told the Faculty that the CRC would not accept this particular amendment, but later said that other parts of the amendments could be incorporated into his final proposal to the faculty, due next Monday.

"Clearly, we still have our differences," Engell said, but he added that he was not certain if he would file a formal amendment, which would also be due by Monday.

With 10 minutes remaining in the two hours usually allotted for meetings, there was still a four-speaker backlog, and President Neil L. Rudenstine called for an extension of the meeting until 6:30.

Engell and others also called for a linguistic Core requirement to bal- ance out the proposed Quantitative Reasoning Requirement, which was met with no opposition at the meeting.

"To know a language and a culture different from one's own is a fundamental requirement of humanism itself," said Gregory Nagy, chair of the classics department. "Quantitative Reasoning must be formally counter-balanced with a linguistic reasoning requirement."

According to Engell, Brown is the only school among the Ivies that has a more relaxed language requirement policy than Harvard. Harvard's only requirement is that students who take a year of elementary-level language classes receive a passing grade.

"Linguistic competency in a language other than English is equally important in life as a competency in quantitative reasoning," Engell said.

Stanley H. Hoffman, a member of the CRC, said that he had long supported an increased language requirement, but his committee had not proposed a linguistic reasoning requirement because they "had enough fish to fry."

Other Proposals

As debate began over the issues, Harvey C. Mansfield, Jr. '53, Kenan professor of government, advocated a "Great Books" curriculum to replace the current Core.

Mansfield read extensively from a report issued in the fall of 1995 by the Student Committee on Undergraduate Requirements.

"[A Great Books program] would not claim to include every book that deserves to be called great," Mansfield read, emphasizing such a program's treatment of "fundamental questions."

"Is one only truly liberally educated when one can think like a historian or a scientist, or should one instead think about why one should be a historian or a scientist?" he read.

David Layzer '46, Menzel professor of astrophysics, also presented an alternate to the current Core curriculum, emphasizing the need for small, writing-intensive discussion sections to accompany lecture classes in the Core.

Other Issues

Preceding Core debate on the meeting docket was Dean of the Faculty of Arts and Sciences (FAS) Jeremy R. Knowles's announcement of three recent private donations to the College Library system which totaled $9 million.

With a recent column from The Crimson in hand, Plummer Professor of Christian Morals Peter J. Gomes then stood up to protest violations of the "purity" of Reading Period.

"There appears to have been a profound erosion around the edges, and now, down the center of reading period," Gomes said, making reference to sections, lectures, and some exams being given after the formal end of classes.

"I would hate to see [reading period] fall into disuse or abuse," he said

"To know a language and a culture different from one's own is a fundamental requirement of humanism itself," said Gregory Nagy, chair of the classics department. "Quantitative Reasoning must be formally counter-balanced with a linguistic reasoning requirement."

According to Engell, Brown is the only school among the Ivies that has a more relaxed language requirement policy than Harvard. Harvard's only requirement is that students who take a year of elementary-level language classes receive a passing grade.

"Linguistic competency in a language other than English is equally important in life as a competency in quantitative reasoning," Engell said.

Stanley H. Hoffman, a member of the CRC, said that he had long supported an increased language requirement, but his committee had not proposed a linguistic reasoning requirement because they "had enough fish to fry."

Other Proposals

As debate began over the issues, Harvey C. Mansfield, Jr. '53, Kenan professor of government, advocated a "Great Books" curriculum to replace the current Core.

Mansfield read extensively from a report issued in the fall of 1995 by the Student Committee on Undergraduate Requirements.

"[A Great Books program] would not claim to include every book that deserves to be called great," Mansfield read, emphasizing such a program's treatment of "fundamental questions."

"Is one only truly liberally educated when one can think like a historian or a scientist, or should one instead think about why one should be a historian or a scientist?" he read.

David Layzer '46, Menzel professor of astrophysics, also presented an alternate to the current Core curriculum, emphasizing the need for small, writing-intensive discussion sections to accompany lecture classes in the Core.

Other Issues

Preceding Core debate on the meeting docket was Dean of the Faculty of Arts and Sciences (FAS) Jeremy R. Knowles's announcement of three recent private donations to the College Library system which totaled $9 million.

With a recent column from The Crimson in hand, Plummer Professor of Christian Morals Peter J. Gomes then stood up to protest violations of the "purity" of Reading Period.

"There appears to have been a profound erosion around the edges, and now, down the center of reading period," Gomes said, making reference to sections, lectures, and some exams being given after the formal end of classes.

"I would hate to see [reading period] fall into disuse or abuse," he said