CORRECTION APPENDED

A proposal that would allow students to list a secondary field—akin to a minor—on their Harvard transcripts may be retroactively applied to current juniors, Dean of the College Benedict H. Gross ’71 told a Sanders Theater audience on Friday.

“If the Faculty decides to pass this legislation [on secondary fields], I imagine that it will do so with a retroactive application. In this case, current students could put a secondary field on their transcript,” Gross said to a packed house of Harvard juniors and their visiting parents.

Gross said that secondary fields will likely take the form of a cluster of five to six courses in a department outside a student’s primary concentration.

Gross also said that the Faculty will likely vote this spring on delaying concentration choices until mid-sophomore year.

Gross told parents that some faculty have proposed the staging of concentration choice, where students would select between one and three concentrations at the end of freshman year.

“Students would then have a whole semester to think about their choices, before refining them down to a single concentration at the end of the third semester,” Gross wrote in an e-mail.

He also told the audience that the Faculty will vote for the establishment of general education requirements to replace the current Core curriculum. Many of these proposals, if approved, will be effective in the fall, said Gross.

Wedged between Plummer Professor of Christian Morals Peter J. Gomes and outgoing University President Lawrence H. Summers, Gross spoke to the assembly for approximately 10 minutes before fielding questions from the audience.

Gross, like all speakers at the event was questioned on Summers’ recent resignation and the repercussions for the undergraduate experience.

“I think the Faculty is anxious to get back in business,” he said, referring to recent setbacks due to Summers’ resignation. “I believe that we are going to make a lot of progress on the curricular review this spring.”

One junior parent asked Gross to comment on the conflicting interests emerging between the undergraduates and the Faculty in the wake of Summers’ decision. Gross replied that the observation was a “great, great oversimplification of what’s happening.”

During his talk, Gross also trumpeted the College’s plan to revamp the advising program and recruit a large group of upperclassmen peer advisers to work with the non-residential advisers in all concentrations.

During the question and answer segment, one junior parent inquired about the state of the new women’s center.

Gross responded that the new center will act as an umbrella organization to oversee the 40 different women’s groups on campus, playing a role analogous to that of the Harvard Foundation for Intercultural and Race Relations. He also said that the center would likely open in the fall and that the search for a director has narrowed to five candidates.

Gross also spoke about the new initiatives in the sciences, namely the Harvard College Program for Research in Science and Engineering (PRISE) and new general physical science courses. Gross said the goal of these programs is to retain more students interested in the sciences.

“Half of the students entering Harvard say that they’re possibly interested in pursuing math or science, but by the time they graduate it’s down to a quarter,” he said.

One parent received an ardent round of applause when she asked about potential changes to the calendar to bring it more in-line with the calendars of other colleges and universities.

Gross answered that, though there have been no calendar changes since 1838, there’s still a chance that revisions will be made next year, but decisions will most likely be held until after a new long-term University president is chosen.

Another parent followed up by asking Gross if he believed that Harvard is “leading the parade” or catching up in the area of curricular reform.

Gross acknowledged that in some areas, Harvard is lagging behind other Ivy League institutions. However, he said Harvard hopes to institute some innovative ideas through the curricular review, including giving more courses at the divisional level, staging concentration choice, and pushing for increased international experiences for undergraduates.

“I think life at this institution is going on,” Gross said.

—Staff writer Ying Wang can be reached at yingwang@fas.harvard.edu.

CORRECTION

Due to an editing error, the print and original online version of the March 6 news article, "Gross Says Faculty Will Vote This Spring on Secondary Fields, Concentration Choice," incorrectly stated that the proposal being considered by professors this semester could add secondary fields to Harvard diplomas for the Class of '07. In fact, the proposal would add secondary fields to transcripts, not to diplomas.