Word: coreness
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Dates: during 1990-1999
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These forms of protest are important, but they are incomplete. For one thing, institutional change at Harvard is a painfully slow process. Core reform and the creation of Ethnic Studies, when these initiatives have been taken seriously by the administration, have moved at a glacial pace. It is a general rule that students who push for changes in the curriculum, even if successful, are not likely to still be enrolled at Harvard-Radcliffe by the time those changes are made. Moreover, conventional methods of protest and external criticism of Harvard policies both seem to simply stiffen the administration's opposition...
...using their knowledge as a point of departure for self-motivated learning. We consider knowledge to be illegitimate unless it provides the answer to a test question, wins a grant or looks good on a transcript. And faced with the weaknesses of the undergraduate curriculum, such as a flawed Core curriculum, large class sizes, inadequate mentorship and so on, we are more likely to complain about what isn't being provided for us, if we even react at all, and less likely to take things into our own hands--to experiment with finding ways to make our education more enriching...
...cannot but be pleased by the fact, for instance, that more than 90 percent of the courses in the Core curriculum are taught by senior faculty," he said...
...activity on campus. He adds, "everyone claims to be allergic to cigarette smoke, which is bullshit. That's why smokers have to stick together." Especially among first-years, who must often brave the elements to get their fix, the smoking community is one that develops strong ties. The hard-core know who they are, and one female first-year declares that "at Harvard there are three smokers and we all know each other." Burns, who always smokes outside, reports, "There's a smoker community." She says standing outside her dorm with the same people all the time has both fostered...
...with the "apathy bug," thankfully, have been less extreme. All of my sections have had interesting, thoughtful people in them, and I've had a few TFs whose efforts at rallying students to participate were outstanding. Yet I have overheard and participated in too many conversations about "my annoying core class" or "my section with 10-minute silences." (I hope this last remark is an exaggeration.) This intellectual apathy has probably led many people, at some point in their studies here, to ask themselves: Is this really Harvard...