Watson continued to argue that a loss of “diversity of faculty” would compromise the committee’s capacity to express the full opinion of FAS. To prevent this outcome, Watson argued that the committee members should create a website to solicit faculty opinion.

East Asian Languages and Civilizations Department Chair Wilt E. Idema expressed a larger concern that with a line-up of mainly “Western-centric” thinkers, collections on other parts of the world might go neglected.

“I have great confidence in the members listed,” Idema said, “but some opinions from someone outside from the Western opinion might be useful in developing our collections.”

No one responded to Watson’s or Idema’s concerns, and when the motion for the committee members was taken to vote, no one voted against the proposal.

THE BUREAUCRACY

On behalf of the FAS Standing Committee on Public Service, Winship asked for “more faculty involvement.”

Winship said the committee, which provides oversight for over 130 undergraduate public service programs, requires more faculty members to join.

“The workload is light, but its importance is substantial,” Winship said.

Faculty otherwise approved criteria for the next academic year, passing the Courses of Instruction for the next academic year and changes in the handbook policy.

In particular, Dean of Undergraduate Education Jay M. Harris moved to formally adopt policies on the honors system—which the faculty voted on before and will relax the system and better define regulations—into the student handbook. Smith also called for the faculty to approve the courses of instruction for tomorrow.

Smith also awarded teaching awards to members of FAS, recognizing others for any national recognition also won.

—Staff writer Gautam S. Kumar can be reached at gkumar@college.harvard.edu.

—Staff writer Julia L. Ryan can be reached at jryan@college.harvard.edu.