Word: eds
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...they will have done so with relative uncertainty as to what sort of education they will receive. When they arrive in the fall, they will be given the choice between the highly criticized and poorly administered Core curriculum, or being the first class to enroll in General Education (Gen Ed...
What seems like an easy choice, however, will not be so obvious. A coherent vision for Gen Ed, with its notion of engaged intellectualism and global citizenship, of which we saw glimpses in the preliminary report from the Task Force on General Education, has quickly ceded to a nebulous, uninspiring hodgepodge of academic disciplines that demonstrates little in the way of a singular, motivating, guiding philosophy. The consequences of this decline are profoundly troublesome, as a slow start to Gen Ed threatens to banish incoming classes of Harvard undergraduates to an incoherent education. To hasten the development of Gen Ed...
...philosophy, and in the interim year and a half, whatever excitement there once was has dissipated. The Faculty has consistently had trouble amassing the energy to gain any traction, and as a consequence, few professors have undertaken the task of creating courses for this nascent program. Only 16 Gen Ed courses will be offered next fall, and only six more have been approved for the 2009-2010 academic year. In fact, a mere 40 proposals have even been submitted, many of which are nothing more than adapted Core courses...
...these efforts to get professors to proactively apply for Core credit have proved inadequate. Students should be given more options, rather than feel limited to the narrowing constraints of a failing program. It is especially disconcerting that only nine Core courses have been approved to double-count for Gen Ed credit for the next academic year. This is hardly accommodating. No wonder Gen Ed Committee Chair Jay M. Harris is insistent that the Class of 2012 not get too caught up next year trying to fulfill their requirements...
...faculty of what is purportedly among the world’s premier undergraduate institutions to be so sluggish in implementing a new curriculum is appalling. With Gen Ed only a few months away from its launch, this program needs to rediscover the impetus and the mission that it sought to embody in its preliminary report. It is incumbent upon Dean Hammonds, who take office on June 1, to restore the sense that Gen Ed is guided by a unified vision of global leadership and engagement. If the program hopes to be successful, Hammonds must use her influence, wielding the power...