CEP Is Close to Decision On Language Requirement

The Committee on Educational Policy is almost sure to recommend changes in the undergaduate language requirement at its December 20 meeting, Dean Ford indicated yesterday.

"We spent our whole meeting today on the question," Ford said; "there were many arguments raised on many levels, but no one wants to leave the requirement as it is now."

The CEP is considering two alternatives to the present requirement which compels students to obtain a score of 560 on a College Board Achievement test, or take two full courses in a language at Harvard, or, if they have had two years of high school language instruction, take one full course at Harvard.

The CEP may ask the Faculty to scrap the requirement. Another possibility is a recommendation to retain the requirement but direct the Administrative Board to be liberal in granting exemptions.

Laxity

Already, Dean Ford said, the Ad Board is "very lax" in enforcing the letter of the language requirement which recognizes only strephosymbolia--a physical learning disorder--as justification for exemption.

The consensus of the meeting was that medical reasons should not be the only legitimate excuses, Dean Ford said.

Although it is unclear what changes will be made, the present requirement was under attack from both sides yesterday. Ford said that the requirement has emotional appeal for many faculty members as part of the cultural exposure students are expected to get here. But others, Ford said, can see no reason to single out language instruction.

Some faculty members argue that the 560 cutoff level is ludicrously low and that Harvard should make up its mind whether to take the requirement seriously or abandon it entirely.

There was no support in the CEP yesterday for creating a bypass to the language requirement via linguistics and comparative literature courses. Last year's Harvard Policy Committee recommended the bypass, but the recommendation now sits lowest on the HPC's list of priorities for possible changes.

When two HPC members testified before the CEP six weeks ago, they recommended abolishing the language requirement.