Committee Releases Final Gen Ed Report

A committee of professors released its final report on general education today, setting the stage for a Faculty vote to replace the Core with a curriculum that emphasizes the real-world context of a liberal arts education.

The final proposal for the College's first overhaul of general education in a generation closely resembles the committee's preliminary October proposal in structure, calling for a set of required categories grounded in subject matter rather than academic disciplines.

Dean of the Faculty Jeremy R. Knowles said today that the full Faculty of Arts and Sciences would probably discuss the recommendations at its regular meeting on Tuesday, with the first vote on the report coming as early as next month.

"[I]t's quite likely that there'll be a discussion on the 13th, with perhaps a formal vote at the March meeting to 'accept' the report and for me to establish a working group to prepare the legislation (that must include timetables, implementation, etc.)," Knowles wrote in an e-mail.

The Task Force on General Education's proposal now requires two courses that address the humanities. A new category on "Aesthetic and Interpretive Understanding" would teach students how to interpret works of art and literature, while a category called "Culture and Belief" would place those works in a social context.

Like the revision to the report released in December, the proposal does not include an explicit requirement in the study of religion.

"We're getting Reason and Faith in there in various categories," Professor of Philosophy Alison Simmons, who co-chaired the task force, said in an interview yesterday. "We still think it's important for students to study."

The final report keeps a requirement from the October version that students take one course in U.S. history and another on world societies. Requirements in physical sciences and life sciences also remain, and a renamed "Empirical Reasoning" category will include courses on evaluating data.

The eighth category, "Ethical Reasoning," will cover philosophy, political theory, religion, and related issues.

"We wanted ethical reasoning to be a more inclusive, or a more expansive, category than the current 'Moral Reasoning' requirement," Simmons said, referring to a category in the present Core.

The 27-page report included only three pages on how the categories would be implemented, saying the details "are beyond the purview of our Task Force." But the report called "a major commitment of resources to the development of a substantial menu of courses for general education."

The Faculty's schedule includes four more meetings this semester after the one next week. If general education legislation is passed this spring, the transition period toward the new system could potentially begin next academic year.

But Simmons that all current undergraduates would be able to graduate under the Core program.

The report cautioned against rushing to implement the proposed program, perhaps anticipating criticism that the proposal would be perceived as a reshuffled and renamed Core.

"A new system should not be instituted too quickly: this should not be a matter of moving existing courses into new curricular pigeonholes."

The eight proposed categories to replace the Core are:

—Ethical Reasoning

—Aesthetic and Interpretive Understanding

—Culture and Belief

—Societies of the World

—United States in the World

—Science of Living Systems

—Science of the Physical Sciences —Empirical Reasoning

—Staff writer Lois E. Beckett can be reached at lbeckett@fas.harvard.edu.

—Staff writer Johannah S. Cornblatt can be reached at jcornbl@fas.harvard.edu.

—Check thecrimson.com throughout the day for updates.