Council Hears From Advising Committee

The Faculty Council­—the Faculty of Arts and Sciences’ (FAS) 19-member governing body—enthusiastically received a presentation from members of the Harvard College Curricular Review’s Committee on Advising and Counseling yesterday. The Council also scheduled discussion of the committee’s report for the next meeting of the full Faculty.

“I thought it was a very good presentation,” said Council member Arthur Kleinman, who is chair of the department of Anthropology. “This was a report that outlines a number of the key issues.”

Three members of the advising committee—Ford Professor of Social Studies and committee chair David Pilbeam, Wolfson Professor of Jewish Studies Jay M. Harris, and Harvard College Professor Stuart M. Shieber—made the presentation.

The recommendations were initially presented to the full Faculty in May but were never discussed due to time constraints.

The report calls for increased centralization of Harvard’s advising resources through the creation of a new dean of advising, and also recommends greater separation between residential and academic advising, among a number of other suggestions.

Faculty Council members expressed hope that there would be meaningful discussion of the report at the next Faculty meeting, scheduled for Dec. 6.

“With good faculty support, there will be a lot of progress,” said Harvard College Professor Laurel Thatcher Ulrich, a Council member. “I think it’s going to happen, we are feeling good.”

Kleinman said there is potential for there to be very little dissent regarding the report at next week’s Faculty meeting, based on how well the report was received by the Council.

Both Ulrich and Kleinman said that there was likely to be a forum in the coming weeks to discuss the advising committee’s report, similar to a forum held on Nov. 16 for students and faculty to discuss the Report of the Committee on General Education and the Report of the Educational Policy Committee.

At yesterday’s meeting, the Faculty Council also briefly discussed the overall schedule for the Faculty’s discussion of the Curricular Review. The bulk of time at Faculty meetings for the foreseeable future is expected to be focused on the numerous Curricular Review reports that have been released but not widely discussed.

“We are really hopeful that Faculty will really be there at these meetings so that people understand the proposals before we make firm decisions,” Ulrich said.

She added that if everything stays on track, actual legislation—the next step beyond the recommendations that are currently available—could be presented to the Faculty “beginning next semester.”

—Staff writer Evan H. Jacobs can be reached at ehjacobs@fas.harvard.edu.