"We must not move away from our responsibility to foster educational development," he said. "The discipline of study is learned through the study of a discipline, through study in depth of a field over several years."
Chalmers urged making requirements more demanding, not less. "We may have to look critically at our admission policy," he said, mentioning "the happy bottom quarter" and athletic scholarships.
"A major in Gen Ed as an alternative to individual concentrations seems to build on a weakness, not a strength," Otto Eckstein, professor of Economies, said.
Richard S. Tilden '71. a student member of the CUE, objected to Harvard's "elitist approach." "We all must acknowledge our limitations," he said. "Professors and students are equally ignorant when it comes to veritas."
"College must be a place where we can explore." he said, "not simply produce scholarship for scholarship's sake alone."