Word: council
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Dates: during 1970-1979
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...Council opposed eliminating concentration course requirements on managerial rather than philosophical grounds. The central problem, say Council members, is equating other universities' offerings with Harvard's. When credit is limited to concentration courses, the department involved may evaluate a course "with some degree of knowledge," Skocpol believes. But once students are allowed to ask for credit in any area, Skocpol says the Council fears the onslaught of "too much administrative burden, if too much detail is required...
...whether the foreign university's credentials meet Harvard standards. Bowersock does not believe his desk would be "piled with requests for obscure universities in Paraguay." Statistics bear this out; almost everyone still wants to spend a year at Oxford or the Sorbonne. In either case, "quality control," as the Council members are fond of calling it, is not at stake...
...Council also worried that once rules are liberalized, thousands of students will flock to the Office of Special Programs waving international airline tickets. Wallace T. MacCaffrey, professor of History and the CUE member who presented the study abroad proposal to the Council, points to Smith College's experience last year, "where 30 per cent of the student body went abroad." But Smith's registrar's office reports that 19 per cent of its students left. Of that percentage only 8 per cent left Smith on the Junior Year Abroad program. The others left for domestic college exchange programs...
Nevertheless, Council members remain uneasy about the possibility of mass exodus. Mack I. Davis, director of advanced standing, last year submitted a memo on study abroad to Dean Fox listing the dangers of large-scale foreign study programs. Davis claimed he could "foresee difficulties in administering an already cumbersome housing lottery" as well as the rise of "issues of financial aid and lost tuition income for the college." The Council shared his nervousness and asked financial aid and admissions officers to produce figures. But because they had no way of predicting how many students will actually take advantage...
...COUNCIL, however, seems determined to keep the program small and firmly in its control. CUE member Henderson argues that the University considers the program an extra goodie to list in the college catalogue, "something else they can point to and say, 'Look what we have,'" without expending much energy. Henderson is probably right. But what is even more irksome is the assumption the Council makes that Harvard students will immediately flock to third-string foreign schools if given the chance; therefore, the study abroad experiences must be suspiciously monitored to maintain "quality control." Davis, for instance, recommended in his memo...