Peter Chen ’13, who serves on both the Committee on General Education and the Gen Ed Planning Committee, says that he feels the extent of most students’ understanding of the Gen Ed program is simply that it gives broader category names to what were narrower Core categories.
“I think people understand that there is a difference between Gen Ed and Core, but it doesn’t go beyond that really,” says Chen.
One of the main tasks the Gen Ed Planning Committee has been charged with is developing programs that will resonate with undergraduates and help expand student understanding of Gen Ed’s goals, something Chen says he thinks may be a “hard transition.”
The bottom line, it seems, is that while the switch to Gen Ed may soon be technically complete, the accompanying ideological shift is still a work in progress.
“This is a program that’s in the makes—they’re always working on it, revising it, trying to make it better,” Kim says. “Whatever we have right now, it’s only going to get better.”
—Staff writer Julie R. Barzilay can be reached at jbarzilay13@college.harvard.edu.