By Debra Bradley Ruder

Gazette Staff

The 20-year-old Core Curriculum continues to broaden the intellectual experiences of undergraduates, but it should provide greater flexibility and more training in quantitative reasoning.

That's the proposition of a faculty-student committee that has been examining the Core program for more than a year and which released a "working paper" this week.

The Core Review Committee has crafted a set of preliminary proposals for Harvard's general education program that include adding a course requirement in quantitative reasoning while reducing the total number of required Core courses from eight to seven.

"These are not yet legislative proposals," said committee chair Sidney Verba, Carl H. Pforzheimer University Professor. "We invite comments from the community that will guide us in preparing more formal proposals. Over the next month or so, we hope to meet with many groups of faculty and students to get reactions."

Joining Verba on the committee are Professors K. Anthony Appiah, John Dowling, Benedict Gross, Stanley Hoffmann, and Helen Vendler, and seniors Justin Label and Patricia Larash.

Committee members affirm the broad purposes of the Core Program and say they believe the propositions on which the program was established have stood up "pretty well" over time.

"We particularly commend the Program for the degree to which it has engaged senior faculty in teaching new courses, and in setting a high standard of curricular oversight," the document states.

Adopted in the late 1970s after several years of intense faculty planning and discussion, the Core Curriculum seeks to expose students to the various ways in which scholars go about gaining and applying knowledge. Coupled with concentration requirements, the Core embraces the belief that both general and specialized education have important roles to play in developing the mental powers of educated men and women.

In a typical distribution requirement, students choose departmental courses in the three broad categories of humanities, social sciences, and natural sciences. In the Core, specially designed courses are offered in 10 areas covering Foreign Cultures, Historical Study, Literature and Arts, Social Analysis, Moral Reasoning, and Science. Each student must pass one course in eight of the areas furthest from his or her concentration.

Core courses are designed for students with little or no background in a field, and -- in contrast to departmental survey courses -- they do not aim to cover a subject comprehensively. Instead, they "try to deal with a subject in some depth in order to illuminate large and important questions, and to show students how to approach them," the document says.

According to the report, more than 350 Core courses have been offered since 1981. Most have been created especially for the program, and more than 90 percent are taught by senior faculty. The catalog lists between 85 and 100 Core courses a year. These offerings are carefully reviewed and monitored.

Modifying the Core

Although the Core Curriculum has been evaluated every five years, this effort represents the most comprehensive review in 15 years.

As part of its work, the committee consulted various groups of faculty, students, and recent Harvard graduates; solicited letters from all students and faculty; and reviewed two reports from the Undergraduate Council.

The committee found that most people favor maintaining some form of non-concentration requirements, but they offered a wide range of opinion on how to organize those requirements. Some, for example, propose a "Great Books" approach while others prefer a system that emphasizes broad survey courses.

The 65-page report describes many of the criticisms and questions surrounding the Core -- such as, "Are Core courses too big?" and "Is there a difference between Core and departmental courses?" -- and it outlines options for replacing or modifying the Core that emerged during the committee's probe.

The committee has put forth a number of preliminary proposals. For example, it recommends adding a course requirement in quantitative reasoning because the existing requirement, a test covering basic probability theory, statistics, and data analysis, "seems to us to be too brief an exposure for our undergraduates, given the clear need for greater fluency in quantitative matters." The requirement would be put in place only when an adequate number of courses are available, it says.

Committee members also examined ways to increase student flexibility and concluded that the best solution might be to reduce the number of required Core courses from eight to seven. They recommend that six of the seven areas be designated for each field of concentration and that they continue to be "remote" from a student's concentration. Undergraduates would have some choice among the remaining areas.

Some other topics addressed include:

* "Ways of Thinking and Understanding." Some people believe the criterion that Core courses illuminate "ways of thinking" is vague and sometimes appears to be ignored. The report urges Core subcommittees to ensure that faculty proposing Core courses "understand the importance of explaining their approach and the broad significance of the subjects that they treat."

* Course shortages. Student complaints about persistent shortages of Core courses are warranted, according to the committee. It suggests enlarging the inventory by renewing efforts to recruit and adapt departmental courses and by providing incentives to faculty to teach in the Core, among other approaches.

* Departmental bypasses. Some people say students should be allowed to substitute departmental courses for Core courses, either on a limited or unlimited basis.

Although the committee recommends that Core subcommittees expand their mechanisms for reviewing petitions from students who wish to meet Core requirements with advanced academic work done outside the Core, it does not favor a general departmental bypass system.

"Departmental courses are not designed to fulfill the same purposes as Core courses," it contends. "We believe that the Core is a countervailing force in the curriculum, ensuring the availability of courses for non-concentrators taught by leading members of the faculty."