CUE Proposal Irks Some Faculty

The Faculty of Arts and Sciences failed to reach a quorum at its meeting yesterday and postponed a vote on a measure that would have required most courses to be student-evaluated.

Several professors blasted the proposal, saying it would infringe upon “professorial autonomy.”

The motion, put forward by Dean of the College Benedict H. Gross ’71, would mandate that all courses of five or more students be evaluated for the annual guide published by the Committee on Undergraduate Education (CUE).

The Faculty Council and a curricular review committee have both supported mandating course evaluations, noting that they serve as crucial report cards for both professors and teaching fellows. According to Gross, about 60 professors opted out of the CUE Guide process last semester, leaving more than 230 TFs without evaluations.

But at the beginning of full Faculty discussion on the issue, Professor of German Peter J. Burgard called for the motion to be tabled, saying it would “undermine a strong tradition of faculty self-governance in the area of teaching.”

Kenan Professor of Government Harvey C. Mansfield’s ’53 rose a few minutes later, and armed with a torn-in-half piece of notebook paper, launched a blunt attack on the current system of student evaluations.

“Course evaluations introduce the rule of the less wise over the more wise, of students over professors,” Mansfield said.

Mansfield said that “the opinions of the best students get buried” in the CUE Guide, which, he said, does not distinguish the top students’ feedback from that of “the mediocre ones, the A-minus students.”

Another professor took issue with online evaluations, which were fully implemented last fall, saying the new system discouraged students from putting much thought into their evaluations.

“I had large numbers of students who simply checked off some numbers and then went away,” said Philip J. Fisher, the Reid professor of English and American literature. “I learned nothing from the evaluations that I got this fall.”

“The process that you are implementing is not deeply considered,” Fisher concluded, to applause.

In the end, after a roundabout debate over parliamentary procedure, the Faculty voted 59-53 to postpone a vote on the measure for a future meeting.

Even if a vote had been taken yesterday, however, it would not have been binding. Near the meeting’s outset University President Lawrence H. Summers asked whether a quorum—one-sixth of the Faculty’s 703 voting members—was present. Secretary of the Faculty David B. Fithian replied that attendance was seven short.

Wrapping up discussion of evaluations, Gross said that the matter could wait until next fall because the current round of CUE evaluations is already underway and no changes could take effect until late next semester.

Theda Skocpol then reported on developments at the Graduate School of Arts Sciences, which she heads.

Professors applauded when Skocpol announced that funding for dissertation completion fellowships had been found for all of the more than 160 graduate students qualifying for them—in contrast, she said, to last year, when not all of the 120 qualifying graduate students received funding.

Skocpol talked for more than five minutes, thanking professors for their assistance throughout this academic year, her first as dean.

“I have had enormous pleasure to go out across departments...to see you in your territory,” said Skocpol, who has been mentioned as a potential candidate to replace outgoing Dean of the Faculty William C. Kirby.

After Skocpol’s speech, Kirby opened a scheduled discussion of the proposed general education requirements that would replace the Core Curriculum. A curricular review panel has proposed a set of broad distribution requirements to succeed the Core, but the plan has yet to garner a Faculty consensus.

“If this were easy, we would be done by now,” Kirby said at the beginning of his remarks. He emphasized that the Core, established in 1978, needs to change.

“We have great difficulty in telling our students with an honest face why some courses are in the Core and why some, why most, aren’t,” he said.

At the meeting’s outset, Kirby announced four new Harvard College Professorships. The prestigious posts, established in 1997, are given to recognize excellence in teaching, and last for five years.

This year’s recipients are Olshan Professor of Economics John Y. Campbell, Gutman Professor of Latin American Affairs John H. Coatsworth, Professor of English and American Literature and Language Leah Price ’91, and Moore Professor of Biological Anthropology Richard W. Wrangham.

At the end of the session, the president noted that the next Faculty meeting will be the last one he chairs.

“I look forward to sharing a few observations with you at that time,” Summers said before banging his gavel.

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