NEWS IN BRIEF: Vote on Curricular Review Unlikely This Semester

It is now highly unlikely that any part of the Harvard College Curricular Review will be voted on before the end of the spring semester, and administrators will thus fall short of their goal to complete the review this academic year.

The review’s progress has been stymied both by the Faculty’s dispute with University President Lawrence H. Summers—which has preempted scheduled discussion of the review at the past two Faculty meetings—and by slow progress of the six review committees.

Dean of the Faculty William C. Kirby said at yesterday’s Faculty meeting that he does not want professors “to decide in a formal way on the recommendations coming from our curricular review committees until we have had as much time as we need in settings informal and formal to discuss and debate them.”

But with only three more Faculty meetings left this year, it is all but impossible for the committees to submit their final reports and for professors to debate the issues and ultimately vote on legislation in this time frame.

The final draft of the Committee on General Education’s report to the Faculty was not distributed during the meeting yesterday.

Many professors who have seen the report strongly criticized its lack of inspiration and depth earlier this week.

Kirby also announced that CUE Guide evaluation forms will be filled out online for a trial period beginning this semester.