The Faculty will apply for foundational grants to pay members of the Faculty to remain at Harvard this summer to begin a study of undergraduate education.
Although still in the planning stages and waiting for a Faculty vote, the study would play a major role in Dean Rosovsky's review of undergraduate education. In October Rosovsky released his proposals in a 22-page letter to the Faculty.
New Redbook
The study will re-examine and improve the quality of undergraduate education, and could take on the dimensions of the "redbook" committee of the 1940s which formulated the present General Education system.
Rosovsky said yesterday he had already talked to one foundation about the possibility of grants and will be talking to others in the near future. He said he was still unsure about how many, or which faculty members would be meeting in the summer.
Phyllis Keller, assistant to Dean Rosovsky, who helped in the preparation of the letter to the Faculty, said yesterday that if the foundation grants come through they will "allow faculty members to investigate in a concentrated manner, free from normal administrative burdens."
Francis M. Pipkin, associate dean of the Faculty, and a member of the committee that wrote Rosovsky's proposal, said yesterday that the proposal for the summer evaluation is still under Faculty consideration and will have to wait for a Faculty vote about the first of the year.
Spokesmen for the educational research departments of the Ford Foundation and the Carnegie Foundation said yesterday they had not been approached by Harvard for any funds and declined to speculate on the prospects of any future Harvard proposals.
Edward T. Wilcox, director of General Education and another member of the committee that worked on the letter to the Faculty, said yesterday the grants would be used to supplement faculty salaries, but added that the proposal is still in the very early stages of consideration.
Rosovsky stated his doubts about the quality of the College education in the letter to Faculty members two weeks ago. In that letter, he cited a possible "erosion in the quality of teaching at Harvard" and the lack of student-faculty contact as major problems.
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