Core Task Force Recommends Major Changes for Gen Ed

The report of the task force on core curriculum, released today, recommends the first major changes in General Education since the program's inception in 1945.

Those changes include the elimination of the Natural Science, Humanities and Social Science groupings and the abolition of the foreign language requirement.

The task force recommends the replacement of the three Gen Ed areas with a much more formalized structure, including required courses in the following seven fields: mathematical reasoning and its application, physical sciences, biological sciences, western culture, nonwestern civilizations and culture, political and moral philosophy and modern social analysis.

Under these provisions the present Committee on General Education would be abolished and in its place would be a Faculty committee on the core program which would oversee the proposed requirements.

A standing committee on non-departmental instruction would maintain the non-departmental courses that no longer fit into the proposed Gen Ed scheme.

James Q. Wilson, Shattuck Professor of Government and the chairman of the seven-person task force, said last week he sees the recommendations of this task force as a re-affirmation of the General Education principles as originally established.

He said the recommendations are clarifications of the goals of Gen Ed and "not just an effort to turn the clock back. We have never really abandoned the tradition of General Education," he said. "But the present General Education guidelines are ineffective and worn down."

Wilson said the recommendations will be forwarded to small groups of Faculty and the Committee on Undergraduate Education for suggestions.

The proposals will then be revised and sent to a Faculty meeting. After more discussion, specific recommendations will be made and legislation drawn up.

The task force recommends that the process be completed by the fall of 1977.

Under the task force's recommendations for distribution requirements, all students would have to pass a half course in mathematical reasoning, non-western civilizations and culture, political and moral philosophy and modern social analysis.

Students would also have to pass a half course in both physical and biological science, or a full course or two related courses in either field.

Students would have to pass either a full course or two related half courses in western literature and art or a half course in western thought and a half course in western lit and art.

Under the plan students would still need to pass Expository Writing to graduate.

The task force also recommends that students may place out of any requirements by getting a satisfactory grade in an examination in specific areas.

The committee recommends that student writing skills be evaluated during freshman orientation period by assigning one or more papers to be written on particular topics. Students with exceptional writing skills would be excused from Expository Writing courses.

The report stipulates that the Faculty designate no more than eight courses in each area, except in western lit and art which would have 12 offerings.

The task force offers only sketchy examples of the type of courses that would fit into these requirements. The mathematical reasoning bracket, for example, would include subjects such as statistical inference, computer science, or problems in public policy analysis.

The physical and biological sciences offerings would familiarize students with important findings and the methods employed to reach them, according to the report. These offerings would deal more with pure science than most Nat Sci offerings given now.

Criticism

The report criticizes the current Nat Sci requirements because "it can be met in any number of ways which insure that the student will not learn or even observe from a safe distance, science."

Courses in western culture could be similar to Soc Sci 2, "Western Thought and Institutions," Wilson said. Courses such as Soc Sci 11, "East Asian Civilization," would fit into the non-western bracket.

Ec 10, "Principles of Economics," would fit under modern social analysis as well as courses dealing with analyses of social structure and the study of relationships between personal attributes and social processes.

Although the task force concedes that a foreign language requirement can be of value, the committee members wrote that they "do not believe that this value is sufficiently great" so that it should be considered on the same level as other core courses.

At the opening of the 38-page report, the committee members acknowledge that they discussed and rejected the possibility of eliminating the core curriculum or making it more flexible.

However, Robert V. Pound, Mallinckrodt Professor of Physics, dissented from the report, noting that he disagrees with the decision to recommend any particular set of special and narrowly defined required courses.

Pound wrote that he favors a more flexible approach to curriculum that would not delineate required courses in such a specific manner.

The decision to undertake broad changes in the Gen Ed program is a tricky one and one that will probably meet opposition from some portions of the Faculty.

Within the last five years committees at Yale and Princeton, which proposed that certain educational reforms be made, were confronted with unobliging faculties that managed to sidetrack most of the major recommendations.

Wilson said he is aware of the obstacles but hopes that some form of change from the status quo will be achieved