Faculty Discusses Curricular Review

The full Faculty gathered for the first time yesterday to set forth the big questions it would like to address in the upcoming curricular review, as part of the year’s second Faculty meeting.

The Faculty also passed legislation to cap the percentage of students who may receive John Harvard and Harvard College scholarships each year.

Dean of the Faculty William C. Kirby opened his remarks by thanking those Faculty members who had taken the time to write to him to express their suggestions for the curricular review. He read aloud excerpts from several of those letters.

“If you like these ideas or if they strike you with horror, you should let me know,” Kirby said, encouraging professors to write to him to express their opinions about the curriculum and the nature of learning within the College.

Dean of Undergraduate Education Benedict H. Gross ’71 opened the Faculty discussion with one proposal for the structure the curricular review might take.

He suggested four committees, each of which would examine one aspect of the curriculum—concentrations, general education, teaching and undergraduate academic experience.

Each committee would be led by faculty co-chairs but would include several undergraduates, graduate students and professors.

After Gross’ brief presentation, nine professors offered their thoughts and concerns about the curricular review—an unusually large level of participation for a Faculty meeting.

Advising and the intellectual climate of the Houses were among the areas of concern for the Faculty.

Above all, most professors who spoke at yesterday’s meeting urged the Faculty to approach the review as its most important task in a generation.

Plummer Professor of Christian Morals Peter J. Gomes urged the Faculty to take advantage of this “one moment of intellectual adventure in our time.”

Gomes reminded the Faculty that the curriculum has only been dramatically changed four times in the past 130 years.

“This is out moment, and I hope we will not shrink from it,” he said.

Also at yesterday’s meeting, the Faculty abolished the College’s Rank List and revised the requirements for the John Harvard and Harvard College Scholarships.

Effective with the 2003-2004 academic year, students will now have to earn grade point averages that fall within the top 5 percent of their class to be designated John Harvard Scholars. Students whose grades fall not in the top 5 percent but in the top 10 percent of their class will be designated Harvard College Scholars.

Dean of the College Harry R. Lewis ’68 framed the change as a logical extension of last year’s Faculty legislation to cap the percentage of students who graduate from the College with honors.

“Currently 19 percent of upperclassmen receive the John Harvard Scholarship for having a GPA of A-minus or better the previous year, and another 48 percent receive the Harvard College Scholarship for having less than A-minus but at least a B-plus GPA,” Lewis wrote in a memo to Faculty members in advance of the meeting.

With such a large number of recipients, Lewis said the awards have lost their ability to recognize the College’s best students.

The motion passed unanimously, with the comment coming from Kenan Professor of Government Harvey C. Mansfield ’53, who subtly suggested that grade inflation was at the root of the need to revise the standards.

The last item on the agenda at yesterday’s meeting was a discussion of the role of public service in the undergraduate experience at Harvard.

Professor of Sociology Christopher Winship, chair of the standing committee on public service, led this discussion, which he had initiated at last month’s Faculty meeting.

Winship called for Faculty members to contemplate ways to integrate students’ public service activities with academic experiences.

Though he said his committee is opposed to the idea of offering academic credit solely for public service, Winship said it is trying to encourage the development of courses that would include a field requirement fulfilled through a public service.

Winship noted that Spanish 38, “Spanish in the Community” already requires students to volunteer in a Spanish-speaking community organization and reflect on their experiences, both orally in class and in papers written in Spanish.

—Staff writer Kate L. Rakoczy can be reached at rakoczy@fas.harvard.edu.