The FAS Finds the Right Problem but the Wrong Solution

The report from a Faculty of Arts and Sciences committee suggesting students should place greater emphasis on coursework finds exactly the right problem with Harvard’s academics, but it is wrong about the solution.

Policy changes that realign student priorities to put courses and learning before clubs and activities are boons for undergraduate education. However, the committee has devised the wrong approach to doing so.

Their ideas include discouraging use of digital devices in class and implementing a revised attendance policy, a dictatorial approach completely at odds with Harvard’s mission of educating the “citizens and citizen-leaders for our society.” It aligns more with what I expect of a preschool, not a university.

Like the committee, I have noticed that it is fairly easy for students to deprioritize classes by taking the easiest courses with the most lenient grading and the fewest assignments. There are great inequities among different concentrations in terms of rigor and grading.

Official data from the 2020-21 academic year shows the divide: 73 percent of grades awarded in the Arts and Humanities division were an A or A-minus. Only 60 percent were in the School of Engineering and Applied Sciences.

Presumably, students that do not prioritize coursework use their time in other ways. Many students are involved in athletics, pre-professional clubs, or other extracurricular activities. While I do see the value in these engagements, sacrificing coursework abates the primary purpose of an undergraduate education: to learn fundamental knowledge.

The committee’s idea to standardize grades is not a bad one — at least in principle. The standard for effort and success in an undergraduate course should be far more similar across disciplines than it is today. Courses across fields should require similar time commitments and quality of work to achieve the same grade. This should not be done by instituting a uniform grade distribution or curve, but rather by enforcing consistent standards for time, effort, and quality of work across all areas of study.

Further, attendance should be decided by professors and their students. Professors are in the best position to determine whether taking or even grading attendance is a sound part of their approach to pedagogy. Professors know the specific characteristics of their course and how important attendance and participation is to learning the content. In some courses, showing up to each class for a rich and engaging discussion is one of the most valuable aspects of the course. But in others — such as large lecture courses — discussion and participation in lecture is negligible.

In courses where professors decide to give students the option to attend lecture as well as a cornucopia of other resources as well as rigorous assignments that reinforce understanding and challenging exams that assess it, it would be extremely disrespectful for FAS administrators to decide they know better than individual professors and students on how course material is best delivered and learned. If a student in a large, technical lecture course skips lecture and instead reads the textbook, attends optional sections, and still performs favorably on assignments and exams, who is the FAS to call this poor pedagogy?

The proposal to restrict phones and other devices also removes autonomy from professors and students. Professors should be permitted to implement the policies they deem reasonable, and giving students the choice to determine how they use digital devices in class makes everyone responsible for themselves and their learning. If a student sees no harm in answering a quick email during a lull in lecture and their professor sees no reason to prohibit them from doing so, why should the FAS?

The FAS should reject draconian authoritarianism and instead trust in its faculty and students. Certainly faculty who have earned their position at Harvard are responsible enough to decide what to require of students. And certainly Harvard’s high-achieving students are capable of deciding how to use computers and phones in class or how they best learn the material.

All that is to say the FAS would be well advised to forgo acting as though they coddle and herd toddlers at a paternalistic preschool, and rather help run America’s premier research university in a way that educates undergraduates to lead society forward. Students, faculty, and our nation deserve no less.

Ian M. Moore ’26, a Crimson Editorial editor, is an Applied Mathematics concentrator in Quincy House.