President, Faculty, Undergrads Discuss the College Curriculum

A committee of students, alumni and members of the Faculty of Arts and Sciences (FAS) held a discussion yesterday on undergraduate education at Harvard.

The meeting, which was closed to the general public and the press, was organized to look into aspects of academic life, including class size, advising and the Core Curriculum, according to several people who attended.

Among the participants were President Neil L. Rudenstine and Dean of the Faculty Jeremy R. Knowles.

"We're exploring the advising system, flexibility of the Core, and the cost and desirability of small teaching groups," said Rudenstine in an interview after the conference.

According to Rudenstine, the group discussed some of the questions raised in a recent report on undergraduate education at Harvard.

The report, released last May, was written by David Pilbeam and Jeffrey Wolcowitz, who are associate and assistant deans of the FAS, respectively. The study discussed the structure of the current curriculum and possible improvements.

The student contingent--six seniors and four juniors--was asked to give its opinions on the current state of undergraduate education, said participant Tawhid Ali '93.

"The emphasis of the discussion is on the role that faculty should have in teaching as opposed to research," said Ali. "In my opinion, Harvard is an educational institution and teaching should come first."

Adam D. Taxin '93 and Steven N. Kalkanis '93, who co-chaired the academics committee of last year's Undergraduate Council, were also present at the conference.

"The alumni want to keep up to date with the students," said Taxin, "and we are very glad to be meeting with them to explore these important issues."

According to Kalakanis, the Undergraduate Council might be looking into creating an ad hoc committee on undergraduate-alumni relations which would facilitate further discussions.