'Holocaust' Dropped

For the first time since the Core Curriculum was adopted in 1978, a course has been removed from the list of classes which fulfill the requirement.

Lecturer in Jewish Studies Erich Goldhagen's course, "Explaining the Holocaust and the Phenomenon of Genocide," was taken out of the Core because "it did not meet the specific guidelines of a Core course," Professor James Q. Wilson, chairman of the committee which recommended the move, said yesterday. "While the course was well taught and a very popular course on the Holocaust, it did not concentrate enough on social theory," Wilson said.

"It was the consensus of the committee that the course dealt too much with specific and incidental facts and not an approach to thinking," said Brian R. Melendez '86, a student member on the Core Committee on Social Analysis and Moral Reasoning.

The committee was most concerned about the bias of the final exam and reading list towards the Jewish Holocaust, Goldhagen said Goldhagen said he defended his course to the committee by saying. "The emphasis on Nazi Germany is unavoidable because it's the best documented and analyzed case of genocide we have."

Goldhagen's course, which did fulfill Core requirements in Social Analysis, is presently offered under General Education. "It is important to undertand that the course has not been dropped altogether from the curriculum," said Wilson.

But for some students, such as Jennifer O'Connor '87, the shift means they won't take the course. "The course would have been a viable choice for me if it had been a Core course. But now I'll opt for another course that satisfies the Core requirement," she said.

Students who took the course when it was considered a Core course will still receive credit for it as a Social Analysis fulfillment, officials said.