Knowles Speaks At UC Meeting

Dean of the Faculty Jeremy R. Knowles made his first appearance in front of the Undergraduate Council last night, delivering a brief speech discussing his pledges to balance the Faculty of Arts and Science's (FAS) $10 million budget deficit and to improve the quality of undergraduate education.

In his approximately 10-minute speech, Knowles emphasized that despite the need to reduce costs within FAS, he would not cut back on services essential to undergraduates. Such "untouchables" Knowles mentioned included financial aid, facilities and the Harvard library system.

"Widener Library is the best library in the world," the dean said. "Am I going to be its funeral director? No."

Knowles was less specific in discussing what he would in fact cut, saying it was too soon to determine that. Despite the $10 million FAS budget deficit, Knowles said Harvard's financial constraints are far less severe than those of many other top schools, including Stanford, Yale and Brown.

Knowles also made several suggestions about how to strengthen education within students' concentrations, stressing that Harvard should make available more tutorials and small classes taught by professors.

Providing Feedback

Regarding the council's role in shaping policy, Knowles told members that they could be "very effective" by staying informed and providing feedback to the administration and Faculty members on issues related to undergraduate life.

"I hope you and I can retain a relatively informal relationship," Knowles said.

At one point, the dean tried to gauge the council's interest in enrolling more international students at Harvard, by taking an informal poll. Members responses were equally for and against.

"You've told me something," Knowles said. "Thank you."

After Knowles's departure, the council spent most of the meeting resuming its discussion of controversial issue of the Reserve Officers Training Corps (ROTC).

The council approved the formation of the ad hoc committee on ROTC, to be chaired by Timothy McCormack '92 and Yared Belai '92, both residents of Cabot House. The council approved both the committee and the chairs in one package, by a vote of 41-21.

Although several amendments were on the agenda for the meeting, all of them were tabled until next week's meeting so that members could watch last night's seventh game of the World Series.

Last night's meeting represented the first full meeting of the council since its new committee chairs were elected last week.

The new council committee chairs are: Michael P. Beys '94 of the finance committee; Mark P. Parisi '93 of the services committee; Jennifer Grove '94 and David L. Duncan '93 of the residential committee; Tree F. Loong '93 and Denmark V. West '92 of the social committee; and Steven N. Kalkanis '93 and Maya G. Prabhu '94 of the academics committee.