In a letter to the VES curriculum committee last year, Rudolf Arnheim, professor of the Psychology of Art, said that Carpenter Center should not continue to convey the impression that understanding "figure-ground relationships" and "complementary colors" are the objectives of its teaching. Instead, Arnheim said, it should shift its emphasis from teaching visual tools to asking what these tools can be used for, especially in terms of self-expression.

In addition, students want Carpenter Center to incorporate such things as print-making and life-drawing, traditionally the domain of the art school, into its curriculum as courses for academic credit. In the past, painting and ceramics courses have been diffused throughout the University as extra-curricular House activities.

Perhaps the opportunity for reform ultimately rests on the hiring and firing of Faculty. Ackerman, who was appointed last Spring as chairman of the committee on the status of the arts at Harvard, believes that VES faculty appointments, except for tenured administrators, should be limited to two or three years to ensure a turn-over within the department. Currently appointments can run for as long as seven or eight years.

Unfortunately for the department, all these clamors for change come at a time of increased budgetary restrictions. At present, the department has three-halves tenured positions which are shared by three professors. The rest of its money comes from the unrestricted funds of the Dean's office. Thus when the belt is tightened, other more heavily endowed departments do not feel the pinch as much as Carpenter Center does.

Students are demanding more equipment, more visiting artists, and new courses all of which require money. Therefore, none of these things is likely to come in the near future.

Yet the attitude around Carpenter Center is optimistic. People feel that things are changing. A report on the status of the arts at Harvard is slated to be published later this month. Impending is the appointment of a new department chairman. President Bok even sent in his own presidential committee to assess the situation at the Center.

Eric Martin, a lecturer on Visual Studies and chairman of the curriculum review committee, observed recently that "Carpenter Center is now seeing what it can be and losing its ancient hang-ups." Conceivably the next ten years will see more changes in the arts at Harvard. Perhaps then the creative moment will arrive, not by accident, but by design.