After Dispute, Ec10 Approved for Gen Ed

After several months of uncertainty, one of Harvard’s largest classes, Social Analysis 10: “Principles of Economics,” has been approved for General Education credit.

If taken for the whole year, it will count for either Empirical and Mathematical Reasoning or The United States in the World—but not both.

Members of the Gen Ed committee and the Economics department said the decision marks a reasonable compromise.

“We are very happy with the outcome,” said Jeffrey A. Miron, the economic department’s director of undergraduate studies.

Ec10 professor N. Gregory Mankiw, who found out the news during his summer at the beach, expressed similar pleasure.

“I’m delighted about how it’s all worked out,” he said.

“There were a lot of different points of view expressed during the discussion,” Mankiw added. “I think given where everybody started...we ended up at a very good place.”

While the economics department was hoping for Ec10 to count toward The United States in the World, some on the Gen Ed committee thought it might be better suited for Empirical and Mathematical Reasoning.

The deadlock was due in part to Gen Ed’s central claim to focus more on subject matter than “ways of knowing,” as well as the indefinite nature of the United States in the World category.

There was also concern that since over 900 students take Ec10 every year, the class might monopolize a Gen Ed category.

But the Gen Ed committee, stewarded by Dean of Undergraduate Education Jay M. Harris, was able to reach a solution over the summer.

The decision comes just in time for freshmen to take Ec10 this fall with the knowledge that it will count for either curriculum.

In a departure from the Core, if Ec10 is taken for just one semester, it will not count toward Gen Ed at all.

—Staff writer Bonnie J. Kavoussi can be reached at kavoussi@fas.harvard.edu.