ERG Proposes Foreign Study

The Educational Resources Group (ERG) voted unanimously last night to recommend to the Committee on Undergraduate Education (CUE) that Harvard join another university's study-abroad program.

ERG will present its description of an "ideal" study abroad program to CUE Wednesday, Willa H. Brown '81, chairman of ERG's foreign studies subcommittee, said yesterday.

ERG recommended that the program Harvard adopts should: Enable a large number of Harvard students to go abroad; Allow students to transfer their financial aid to a foreign study program; Place students in a foreign environment, as opposed to what Brown described as "American universities abroad."

ERG also voted to recommend that grades from foreign universities not be counted towards a student's grade-point average.

"What we are looking to do is feed into someone else's program, where they have already ironed out the difficulties," Brown said.

She added that starting a totally new program here at Harvard would require "too much time and money."

The group also recommended establishing a student-faculty committee to compile a list of academically suitable foreign universities so that students could be granted credit for their work.

If students wanted to go to a foreign school not on the committee's list, they would have to get board approval before credit could be granted, Brown said.

CUE is considering several proposals from schools with established foreign study, programs. The Stanford University program, one of the country's largest, is "only one option," Brown said.

Glen W. Bowersock '57, associate dean of the Faculty, said last week that the University of California campuses at Santa Barbara and Berkeley also had contacted Harvard about their foreign study programs.