“Together, all of us, as a Faculty, need to review, renew, and re-energize the Harvard College curriculum in our own time and in our own way,” he said.

RESULT OF A YEAR’S WORK

Eight months after the second round of curricular review committees had been formed, nearly all of the committees released draft reports of their conclusions to the Faculty in May.

One central report, from the Committee on General Education, remained in committee after its early readers criticized its lack of detail and an overarching vision. (Please see story, page B1.)

The presentations of the reports before the Faculty marked the first significant discussion of the curricular review during faculty meetings since before the Summers controversy.

Offering a wide-range of suggestions for improvement of the College, the reports highlighted specific changes to be made. A detailed schedule for advising was created, along with specific recommendations for January term activities, some of which included language study abroad and culinary arts classes. Proposals were also made to create centers to coordinate writing resources, as well as advising resources.

The fragmented nature of the review led some to caution committee members to be aware of the review as a whole, rather than just their own parts of it.

“[The committees] are working pretty much independently, which is okay as long as someone is looking for intersections,” says Laurel Thatcher Ulrich, Phillips professor of early American history and chair of the Pedagogical Improvement Committee.

But Senior Lecturer on Molecular and Cellular Biology Robert A. Lue, a member of three curricular review committees, acknowledges that, “general education is a very central piece” of the curricular review. He adds, however, that faculty members remained enthusiastic about the review even as the General Education committee faces difficulties.

“I absolutely don’t agree that [the Curricular Review] is horrifically stalled,” he says. “There is a lot of stuff going on and things are moving...the faculty are really excited.”

—Staff writer Allison A. Frost can be reached at afrost@fas.harvard.edu.

—Staff writer Evan H. Jacobs can be reached at ehjacobs@fas.harvard.edu.