A Guide to the Curricular Review

By voting to allow undergraduates to declare secondary fields yesterday, the Faculty of Arts and Sciences acted on the first proposal that emerged from the Harvard College Curricular Review.

The curricular review was the work of eight different committees that addressed everything from study abroad to the freshman writing program.

The full Faculty will consider the committees’ recommendations in the next several months—and the outcome of these discussions could affect Harvard undergraduates for years to come.

CONCENTRATIONS

One of the Education Policy Committee’s recommendations—the creation of secondary fields—has already passed the Faculty. The fields, similar to minors, will allow students to pursue two subjects without the integrative thesis required of a joint concentration. Other key proposals still await a vote:

—Putting off concentration choice until the end of the first semester of students’ sophomore years.

—Examining the number of courses required by some concentrations with an aim toward scaling back the requirements.

GENERAL EDUCATION

The Committee on General Education’s recommendations are among the most hotly-contested and wide-reaching in the review. Key proposals include:

—Replacing the current Core Curriculum with distributional requirements. These requirements would consist of three courses each in three subject areas—Arts and Humanities, the Study of Societies, and Science and Technology. The three courses used to fulfill an “area distribution” could not all be taken in one department.

—Relaxing the language requirement to allow students until the end of sophomore year to demonstrate proficiency in a foreign language.

—Creating more integrative introductory courses—the so-called “portal” courses—such as the newly-launched Life Sciences sequence.

STUDY ABROAD

The Committee on Education Abroad has made several recommendations to ensure that undergraduates have some “significant international experience” during their time at Harvard. The key proposals include:

—Noting on transcripts whether a student took part in a “significant international experience,” which could take the form of study abroad or summer travel.

—Expanding financial aid for summer study abroad programs by increasing grants to students and reducing the summer earnings expectation for students on aid.

—Creating more area studies certificates similar to the existing Certificate in Latin American Studies.

JANUARY TERM

The Committee on a January Term has made several recommendations about a “January Term”—a period between first and second semester which would allow for students to pursue enrichment away from their term-time courses. The key proposals include:

—Creating a January Term in which students could attend seminar-style courses, study abroad, or take part in pre-professional internships.

—Creating an office to organize programs and opportunities for the January Term.

SCIENCE EDUCATION

The Committee on Science and Technology Education made one key recommendation about science instruction at the College: the creation of more integrative, introductory science courses in the life and physical sciences.

WRITING AND RHETORIC

The Committee on the Teaching of Writing and Speaking made several key recommendations about reforming the Expository Writing program. The key proposals include:

—Making Expository Writing a required seminar course that is graded Sat/Unsat, though assignments would still be marked with letter grades.

—Having lecturers or professors—nor preceptors—teach the new writing course.

—Increasing the number of courses that teach public speaking, debate, and oral argument.

—Capping the number of students in each course at 12.

—Creating a certificate in writing and speaking for students who complete three additional courses beyond the freshman requirements.

ADVISING

The Committee on Advising and Counseling made several recommendations that it said would improve the advising of undergraduates. The key proposals include:

—Creating an additional deanship to oversee a new Office of Advising. The College has already moved to implement this change, naming Monique Rinere to the post late last year.

—Increasing the number of assistant deans of freshmen to four, from the present three.

—Having more faculty act as academic advisers, and working with concentrations to ensure that all students have an identifiable concentration adviser.

TEACHING AND PEDAGOGY

The Committee on Pedagogical Improvement made several recommendations, most of which are aimed at the Faculty, to improve the quality of teaching and make resources more available to students and staff. The key proposals include:

—Consulting with outside assessment experts and focus groups of students, faculty, and teaching fellows to refine pedagogy.

—Allowing more opportunities for student feedback on course evaluations and making greater use of mid-course evaluations.

—Creating an intranet on the Harvard website to better organize online resources.

—Ensuring that one person in each department or program is ultimately responsible for coordinating teaching.