Ford suggests a set of Faculty "Friends ofExpos" beyond the standing committee, which wouldbring the methodologies of different disciplinesto bear on the program's needs. These professorswould care about Expos, and would lend theirexpertise to the program--as well as incorporatethe program's methods into their own classwork.
Sommers notes that some events already beingplanned may allay concerns about the program'sisolation from the rest of the Faculty.
Sommers, who is completing a study of theteaching of writing at Harvard, is organizing alecture series about the role of writing indifferent academic fields.
And Buell says he would like to see morefirst-year seminars at Harvard. But Dean ofFreshmen Elizabeth S. Nathans points out thatadding more seminars is problematic because of thelimited availability of Harvard faculty to teachthe small classes.
In the end, however, writing expertsboth here and elsewhere say that for Harvard, onlya uniquely Harvard solution will work.
The University which hires only "the best inthe world" to teach its students values quality:The problem, Wilkinson says, is making its cultureacknowledge that the teaching of writing is ascentral to stature as the number of Nobels orendowed chairs.
"If those changes take, they will be solidlyimplanted in a Unversity culture which valuesexcellence in academic discourse," says Wilkinson.
A University which, at present, he says,"doesn't always ask students to live up to itsstandards."