Students Meet With Bok To Discuss Core Petition

President Bok and Dean Fox told members of the Ad Hoc Committee Against the Core Curriculum yesterday that the process by which the Faculty is considering the Core Curriculum has been open, especially to students.

The members of the ad hoc committee have compained about the difficulty the group has encountered in presenting a 2500-signature petition asking the Faculty to delay its vote on the Core until it can consider student opinion on the Core.

Ross D. Boylan '81, a member of the ad hoc committee, said yesterday Bok clearly implied that the Faculty would not delay its decision on the Core.

At a special meeting with the ad hoc committee, Bok mentioned the amendments proposed by the Committee on Undergraduate Education (CUE), which the Faculty voted to incorporate into the Core legislation, as evidence of student participation in the decision-making process.

Input

Bok added that administrators made every effort to get input from all sources, citing a letter Dean Rosovsky mailed to students, alumni and Faculty members requesting suggestions on General Education reforms.

In any decision-making process, a final decision has to be made, despite reservations, Bok reportedly said.

Bok could not be reached for comment yesterday.

Ad hoc committee members asked the administrators why copies of the core report were not distributed to many libraries. Bok and Fox answered that accidents happen, Boylan said, adding that neither Bok nor Fox appeared "stricken with grief."

The administrators both discounted the strength of student objections to the Core Curriculum, saying, "It's very easy to sign a petition."

Bok and Fox also warned the members of the ad hoc committee that "mass opinion" would not change the Core because Harvard Faculty members base decisions on their own judgment.

"We were both somewhat surprised at the extent to which Bok downplayed Harvard students' ability to make an intelligent decision on the issue," Boylan said. "He felt students were just looking at the Core and saying 'who wants more requirements?'"

The administrators seemed to believe there was little substance to students' objections to the Core. "There really is nothing students can do," Boylan said, adding that the ad hoc committee and the Students Against the Core Curriculum (SACC) had abandoned plans for a demonstration because the groups thought there was not enough student interest in the issue.

The Educational Resources Group will sponsor a forum this Thursday with members of the ad hoc committee, the SACC, and the Faculty.