Gen Ed approves 16 new courses drawn almost entirely from existing offerings in the Core or departments

Sixteen courses—only one of which was newly created—were approved for Gen Ed credit at the beginning of this month.

Jason A. Ur, one of the professors teaching the recently approved Anthropology 1010: “Introduction to Archaeology,” said he was thrilled by the decision because the course previously only counted only for departmental credit.

“Harvard students don’t like to waste time,” Ur said. “Now they can take something interesting which is also a requirement and this will hopefully interest more students in archaeology.”

For Ur, the transition to Gen Ed meant shifting the emphasis of the course, which is offered in the anthropology department and will now count for the Empirical and Mathematical Reasoning category.

While Ur adapted his course in the process of gaining Gen Ed approval, Anne Marie E. Calareso, program manager for General Education, said that the Gen Ed committee doesn’t really turn any courses away.

“In the case where a course wouldn’t necessarily fit, we might talk with the faculty member about how to make it fit,” said Calareso who added that this might include more integrative web sites or museum visits.

But Calareso noted that any changes to previously existing courses in their transition to Gen Ed come primarily from the faculty.

“The [Gen Ed] committee isn’t in the business of telling faculty what to do,” Calareso said.

She added that while this is the case, professors have to be explicit in their proposals about how their course fits within the Gen Ed philosophy.

Scot T. Martin, who teaches the recently approved Engineering Sciences 6, said that the Gen Ed aim “to make courses socially relevant” was something his course has tried to do from the beginning.

Martin added that his course will change next year, but not because of Gen Ed. He said that it is the nature of the course, which deals with energy production and pollution issues, to always be adapting.

This recent set of class approvals has allowed professors of departmental courses to seek bigger and more diverse student audiences and Core class professors to continue with their carefully cultivated courses, and Calareso said she is unsure how many future Gen Ed proposals will be entirely new.

“We certainly would like new courses but recognize that it could be difficult to do within the short time frame,” Calareso said.

She added that the committee should soon be seeing proposals coming out of graduate seminars, which were designed to develop courses for the General Education program.

—Staff writer Rachel A. Stark can be reached at rstark@fas.harvard.edu.