Gen Ed’s eight categories, broader than the Core’s, will push students less outside of their concentrations

As the first anniversary of General Education’s approval by the Faculty approaches, it’s becoming clear that the new curriculum will push students less outside of their concentrations.

Rather than take courses in the seven subjects furthest from one’s concentration, every Harvard student will take classes in the same eight categories—some of which may double-count for concentration credit, according to Gen Ed committee chair Jay M. Harris.

“If you’re a science concentrator, five of the eight will push you beyond your discipline,” Harris said. “That will be true for everybody.”

But he said he’s not worried about the prospect of students not experimenting with subjects outside of their concentrations.

“One can imagine someone working very hard to not branch out very much, but I don’t think that will be the norm,” he said. “If, as I expect, it’ll be one in 300, I’m just not going to worry about it.”

Harris said the new system will allow freshmen to use Gen Ed courses to explore possible fields of study. This would mark a change from the Core, where freshmen often take Core classes furthest from their possible concentrations, he added.

Gen Ed committee member Alexander “Zander” N. Li ’08 said he believes that the new curriculum is a step in the right direction.

“There is always this tension between giving students the freedom to take classes they find interesting and giving them this well-rounded education,” he said. “I think the sense is that wherever possible, we should give students the freedom.”

“It’s possible students will major in the humanities and never take any economics or math,” Li added. “And that’s the price to pay.”

Within the categories that are further from students’ concentrations, it also appears that it will be easier for undergraduates to find courses that use approaches they find familiar.

In the new Gen Ed course “Understanding Darwinism,” students will learn Darwinian history and engage in debates about evolution during section. The class will count for Science of Living Systems—Gen Ed’s adaptation of the Core’s Science B requirement.

Though set to count for the Gen Ed category Empirical and Mathematical Reasoning in Spring 2009, Kenneth A. Shepsle’s class, Social Analysis 46: “Thinking About Politics,” currently does not involve problem sets.

But Shepsle said that he is thinking about incorporating problem sets next year.

—Staff writer Bonnie J. Kavoussi can be reached at kavoussi@fas.harvard.edu.