Coveted Curricular Review Spots Go to Eight Undergrads

Eight undergraduates bagged seats on the College’s curricular review committees, it was announced yesterday, and they are poised to press for wide-ranging changes in both what Harvard students study and how they are taught.

Dean of Undergraduate Education Benedict H. Gross ’71 announced the students’ names in the last major step before starting the first curricular review Harvard College has seen in roughly a quarter of a century.

Gross invited students to apply for spots on the four curricular review committees last month.

The Undergraduate Council screened the applicants twice and reviewed their final choices with Gross and Assistant Dean of Undergraduate Education Jeffrey Wolcowitz last Friday.

The students compose a geographically and academically diverse group with many different ideas about what is important in a Harvard education.

Joseph K. Green ’04, who will serve on the pedagogy committee, said that every aspect of undergraduate education deserves scrutiny.

“Everything has to be questioned, even the most fundamental things,” said Green. “Not just how we run sections, but ‘should we have sections at all?’ ‘Could a textbook replace lectures?’”

Green said that Harvard’s focus should be helping students learn to think and giving them opportunities for back-and-forth argument with professors and fellow students.

Forced memorization and rote learning are too common and should be less important in the classroom, according to Green.

Nicholas F. Josefowitz ’05, who is also a Crimson executive, will join the committee on concentrations.

He expressed dissatisfaction with disparities in contact with professors and opportunities for research among different concentrations.

“Even when people come to Harvard, not everyone has the same educational opportunities,” said Josefowitz, who spearheaded a petition to preserve shopping period earlier this semester. “If you’re in a small concentration, you get significantly more faculty contact than if you’re in a much larger concentration.”

Overall, the students had very different ideas about how to change the curriculum.

Changing the Core is a priority for Rosalie Thede ’06, who will serve on the General Education committee. She said the Core provides a good way to ensure each student gets a broad education, but the requirements should be more flexible.

“I thought it would be nice to have up to three or four core exemptionson A.P. [Advanced Placement] scores,” Thede said. “I’d like to see a place for A.P. credit and I see the Core as the best place for that.”

Colette J. Shen ’04, who will be part of the concentrations committee, pointed to what she views as inequalities in the Core between humanities and science concentrators.

“Science people have to do a lot of humanities things, but humanities people don’t do a lot of science,” said Shen.

She said making science a bigger part of general education might help give all students a broader perspective on the world and current issues.

Sheila Lopez ’04, who was named to the pedagogy committee, said improving the learning process would require a commitment from the faculty as well as from students.

She said she hopes all professors will enter their lectures with “a thesis and evidence.”

“[Professors] shouldn’t be using lecture time to ramble on,” she said.

Zachary S. Podolsky ’04, who is also a Crimson editor, said students should be tracked in large courses such as Expository Writing 20.

“It would help people across all different ability levels,” he said.

Podolsky will join Victoria Sprow ’06 on the committee for overall academic experience.

Sprow said that Harvard should start its own study aboard programs.

And Podolsky said that Harvard should have more of a role in creating study abroad programs with relevant and appropriate curricula.

The committees plan to meet for several “brainstorming sessions” throughout the remainder of the spring term and will meet every other Monday beginning next fall.

—Staff writer Laura L. Krug can be reached at krug@fas.harvard.edu.