Word: hcc
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Dates: during 2000-2009
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...aspects of the Harvard College Curricular Review (HCCR) are scheduled to come to a vote next semester, but little progress determining the nature of the proposed Harvard College Courses (HCC) seems to have been made since last April’s HCCR report. While we appreciate that the Committee on General Education is reluctant to make hasty decisions regarding these momentous choices, we are worried that the “shape” of the proposed system—as Bass Professor of Government Michael J. Sandel called it—is too lacking in definition for any substantive discussion...
After establishing a rationale for the purpose of general education, the Committee should provide clear practical guidance for implementation. This will require explicitly defining the criteria and justifications underling the vaunted Harvard College Courses. It also means asking whether HCC will be required, and if so, how many HCC each student must take, and in what areas. The Committee has begun to ask these questions, but answering these questions without first establishing a formidable foundation is a short-sighted shortcut...
...event, we firmly believe that HCC should not be required at all. It is likely that they will only be the exciting, challenging and meaningful courses that they are intended to be so long as students can choose to abandon them for departmental courses en masse. Competition between courses, which is sorely lacking in the present Core, will ensure that these courses are truly the best courses Harvard offers. If they are truly as well-designed and well-taught as intended, students will want to enroll in them. If the Faculty insists on requiring at least some HCC, we hope...
Beyond the raw numbers that will decide how HCC translate into graduation requirements, the Committee must formulate stringent requirements for what can constitute a HCC. Anyone can have a vision for HCC—we think that they should be rigorous, interdisciplinary, and focused on intellectually worthy topics that could not be covered adequately within departments—but if the Committee charts out lofty goals and aspirations for the HCC but neglects to decide what it all means in any practical sense, they have condemned the College and its students to another generation in intellectual purgatory. Saying a course...
Reforming the structure of the council can also make council representatives more responsive on issues apart from the Curricular Review. Splitting off the Finance Committee (FiCom) from the rest of the council will free FiCom-ers to spend more time giving grants to student groups. The Harvard Concert Commission (HCC) should also be forced to solicit more student input before it begins bidding for large musical acts, whether through a closer association with the council itself or folding the HCC directly into the College Life Committee. Though we recognize that the bidding process is complicated, the HCC must realize that...