Gen. Ed. Committee Will Have Undergraduate Reps

Undergraduates will be involved in this summer’s work to revise the Harvard College Curricular Review’s General Education recommendations, though no definite time frame for when official student input will begin has been set, according to the co-chairs of the faculty committee in charge of the work.

The committee’s co-chair, Bass Professor of English and American Literature and Language Louis Menand, said yesterday that he anticipates students will be involved in discussing General Education changes “sooner rather than later.” He also said that the six-member committee plans to bring in other faculty and administrators and that the committee would like to have their proposals “in shape before school starts.”

Menand said that the committee has already met three times since its first introductory meeting with administrators in June.

Last summer, a similar five-person committee met to structure the Gen Ed requirements for the College. That report proposed that students take three courses in each of the three areas of the humanities, science and technology and the study of society. It also advised that optional interdisciplinary Gen Ed courses be offered, but the proposal was never thoroughly discussed by the Faculty.

“One of the problems with the earlier committee was that it was too big and there were too many voices in the room before anything could get in concrete,” Menand said. “Everything was being talked to death.”

Menand said that this committee will aim to “not get too entangled with outside discussion until we’re ready to tell people what we think.”

Professor of Philosophy Alison Simmons, the other co-chair, wrote in an e-mail to The Crimson that the committee is currently “trying to produce some ideas to prompt and focus a discussion” rather than write up a formal report.

Simmons wrote that she did not know “what the constitution of the committee writing up the formal report will be,” but wrote that “it would make good sense to have student representation at that point.”

But even though the committee is small and interested in gathering their own views before including those of students or others outside of the committee, Menand said that the committee will not be exclusive.

“We have no desire to be secretive or to spring something on faculty or students,” he said.

He also said that Undergraduate Council (UC) members have been told that the members of the committee are available to answer questions and concerns. Last Wednesday, UC Student Affairs Committee (SAC) Chair Ryan A. Petersen ’08 sent a message over the UC’s public e-mail list encouraging council members to contact Menand with thoughts and concerns about Gen Ed.

Over the past year, the UC has pushed the College to move forward with the Curricular Review, which began in 2002 and has since been repeatedly delayed.

“Every class that has to graduate with a curriculum that we all admit is flawed is getting the short end of the stick,” SAC Vice-Chair Matthew R. Greenfield ’08 said in an interview last week.

—Johannah S. Cornblatt contributed to the reporting of this story.

—Staff writer Brittney L. Moraski can be reached at bmoraski@fas.harvard.edu.