Profs Criticize Gen Ed Report

The curricular review’s Committee on General Education is slated to recommend the replacement of the Core with a set of distribution requirements, according to a draft of the committee’s report obtained by The Crimson yesterday. But many who have seen the report have criticized its recommendations as too vague to serve as the foundation for a new curriculum.

When the Faculty Council—the 18-member governing body of the Faculty of Arts and Sciences—considered the draft report at its meeting last Wednesday, some members suggested the committee reconvene to rework its recommendations, according to former Undergraduate Council president Matthew W. Mahan ’05, a member of the general education committee who was at the discussion.

“My impression is that the general education committee might be reconvened,” he said. “I personally feel like we need more discussion.”

One Faculty Council member, who asked to remain anonymous, said he hopes the committee will start from scratch.

“I don’t think it’s very good,” the council member said. “I don’t think it answers the key questions for why did we bother to go into a curricular revision.”

General education committee and Faculty Council members contacted by The Crimson said they were unsure when the report would be made available to the full Faculty, but they said it could be as early as tomorrow’s meeting of the Faculty.

Kirby wrote in an email to The Crimson yesterday that “nothing can be voted on until the Faculty has had the fullest