Gov. Faculty Teach a Lot

To the Editors of The Crimson:

In your staff editorial of May 22 about requirements for honors, you correctly noted that the Government Department instituted a minimum grade-point average requirement of 11.5 for students wishing to write a senior thesis, and that this requirement will not go into effect (pursuant to University rules) until 1993.

Not only is the requirement, as you admitted, "not particularly arduous;" those who will be affected by it have been fully informed in advance.

Unfortunately, your editorial also implies that faculty members in Government do little teaching. In fact, our faculty members (senior and junior) teach four courses per year--the same as at most liberal arts colleges--while also supervising up to 20 dissertations by graduate students.

In addition, last year the faculty imposed upon themselves the requirement of advising at least three honors theses per year. The amount of teaching done by senior faculty in the Government Department greatly exceeds that of our colleagues in many other departments at Harvard; is greater than at many competitive universities and is, I believe, at least as great as that done by any political science faculty at any major American university.

The result of our extensive teaching is that this year and next year, Government offers over 30 faculty-taught junior seminars, with enrollments limited to 15 students or fewer. At this writing, we plan to offer 32 such seminars during 1991-92.

Our junior honors candidates normally take two such seminars each. This year, 88 students wrote honors theses; 85 of those students will receive honors degrees. By one count, 70 percent of our courses have enrollments of 30 students or fewer. And as any reader of the CUE Guide knows, Government Department courses typically garner high ratings from students.

Harvard should improve its undergraduate teaching, and you are surely correct that the best long-term answer is an expansion of the number of faculty members.

But you should also realize that hiring senior faculty is expensive; the Faculty of Arts and Sciences has a deficit and, especially in a recession, raising funds is difficult. Within the limits of the resources provided by the University, the faculty and teaching fellows of the Government Department are working hard to provide an excellent education to our undergraduate students. It would be a shame if your editorial were to give its readers any other impression. Robert O. Keohane   Chair, Government Department