UC Questions Gen Ed Chairs

Undergraduate Council (UC) representatives questioned committee chairs of the Preliminary Report of the Task Force on General Education in a town hall meeting last night, focusing on proposed approaches to science and math.

Bass Professor of English Louis Menand and Professor of Philosophy Alison Simmons spoke to a group of 50 students that weren’t limited to UC members in Harvard Hall.

Calling the core “old-fashioned,” Menand said that the current system fragmented knowledge into specific academic disciplines more suitable for the ivory tower than the outside world.

“But 90 percent of Harvard students don’t become professors,” Menand added.

The report, released four weeks ago, would require every undergraduate to take at least one course in each of seven areas: “Cultural Traditions and Cultural Change,” “The Ethical Life,” “The United States: Historical and Global Perspectives,” “Societies of the World,” “Reason and Faith,” “Life Science,” and “Physical Science.” The report says that knowledge of these areas is essential to citizenship.

One student questioned if “Reason and Faith” should be taught at a secular university.

In response to student concerns that the report didn’t give sufficient attention to science and math, Simmons said, “It’s important...to think not only about the practical details of the science, but also the implications of the science.”

UC Student Activities Committee Vice Chair for Undergraduate Education Matthew R. Greenfield ’08 said that this meeting was an important forum for students to voice their opinions about the gen ed report.

“It’s undergraduates who have seen the pros and cons of the core, and it’s the undergrads who know what is and isn’t appealing,” Greenfield said.

In other UC business, the representatives approved $2,250 in a grant to Dudley House to host several dinners and parties.

For the small number of students affiliated with Dudley House—57—this represents a larger allocation per student.

Last week, the UC questioned whether students from other Houses would be able to take advantage of the money. The grant arose from a larger bill to be voted on last week. While the bill was voted on, voting on the grant was delayed until this week.

Greenfield voted against the bill.

“A residential house with an eighth the size of a normal house should not get half the money of a normal house,” he said after the meeting last night. “There are better places we could have put that money.”

Representatives also passed an initiative to increase the frequency of shuttles running from the quad to the river on the day of the Harvard-Yale Game.

—Staff writer Margot E. Edelman can be reached at medelman@fas.harvard.edu.