CORRECTION APPENDED

The study of the past should find its way into the studies of future Harvard students, members of the Faculty of Arts and Sciences (FAS) recommended yesterday at the third straight Faculty meeting dedicated to the review of general education legislation.

Administrators and professors alike have said that they hope to approve the general education plan by May 1.

At yesterday’s meeting professors voted that students be required to take one course engaged “substantially with the study of the past”—a move described by one historian as “mostly symbolic” but important for fellow colleagues who have criticized the present-day focus of the proposed curriculum.

“Harvard hasn’t given up on tradition,” Laurel T. Ulrich, a historian of early America and a member of the governing board of the Faculty, said following the meeting.

Only earlier this month, a majority of the Faculty rejected the insertion of “history” into the proposed “Culture and Belief” requirement.

Occasional lapses in order yesterday saw Interim University President Derek C. Bok reaching for his gavel, but the gavel’s bang was less jarring than the absence of former Interim Dean of the Faculty Jeremy R. Knowles.

At the start of yesterday’s meeting, current Interim Dean David Pilbeam, who accepted his post Monday, received applause from his Faculty upon introduction. Bok updated his colleagues on the state of Knowles, who resigned from his post on Monday as he continues to battle prostate cancer.

Bok said Knowles’ condition appeared to be “under control” on Saturday, only to worsen seriously on Sunday—the day Pilbeam was asked to take over for Knowles—and improve on Monday.

“All we can do is wait and hope and wish him well,” Bok said of Knowles, who came to Harvard in 1973, two years after Bok first assumed the presidency.

Lovers of the past aren’t the only ones who have thought that the proposed legislation leaves their discipline under attack or under appreciated.

Johnstone Family Professor of Psychology Steven Pinker, repeating remarks from last week, said that science received poorer treatment in the legislation than other disciplines.

“We are urging professors to focus on the history of the field, methodology of the field, social context of the field,” he said. “It is not clear why this should be imperative for science and not any other discipline.”

But Professor of Philosophy Peter Godfrey-Smith said he thought the legislation’s treatment of sciences represented a productive engagement with the discipline.

“One of the good things about Harvard is we do a good job of getting the right kind of contact between science and other disciplines,” he said.

In addition to approving the “Science of Living System” and “Science of the Physical Universe” categories, professors approved the legislation for “Societies of the World” and “The United States in the World” yesterday.

Like the current Core Curriculum, the new system of general education will have eight categories.

As in past weeks, professors lobbied to broaden legislation to make room for their own disciplines. Economists and American historians proved successful in that feat yesterday, convincing their colleagues to alter the categories “Societies of the World” and “The United States in the World.”

“What we’re asking for is more flexibility,” said Jones Professor of American Studies Lizabeth Cohen, speaking on behalf of her colleagues.

Beren Professor of Economics N. Gregory Mankiw, whose Economics 10 lectures pack in 736 undergraduates this semester, said that he hoped the category would provide “a bigger tent” for analytic and behavioral approaches of study. [SEE CORRECTION BELOW]

The Faculty will meet again next Tuesday to continue their review of the legislation.

—Staff writer Samuel P. Jacobs can be reached at jacobs@fas.harvard.edu.

CORRECTION: The April 25 news article "History Finds Its Place in Gen Ed" incorrectly referred to Beren Professor of Economics N. Gregory Mankiw's introductory economics class as "Economics 10." In fact, it is titled "Social Analysis 10: Principles of Economics."