And according to classics professor Richard F. Thomas, the Ed School library does not support non-Anglophone research.
“Nowhere is the issue of increased [library] resources introduced,” Thomas said about the current proposal. “I think it’s our practice when we have incremental programs to build in the resources needed to support those programs.”
SECONDARY TIME AROUND
In a five-year review of the current system of concentration declaration and secondary fields, Harris and the Education Policy Committee proposed few changes to the existing procedures.
In 2006, the College changed the concentration deadline from the second to the third semester, as more than 30 percent of students were switching their concentrations and 5 percent more than once, Harris said.
“The idea was to give students more time to make well-informed decisions,” he said, adding that results from the senior surveys indicate that students are happier with the new schedule.
But according to one professor, some students are not as happy with guidelines on secondary fields. Although students cawn obtain more than one language citation, they are limited to a single secondary field.
“We wanted to preserve for students the flexibility to take a range of electives,” Harris said in defense of the policy, which the Education Policy Committee did not recommend to change. “[Students] are free to take all their electives in a certain field, but to certify this as an achievement worthy of another brownie point or ribbon to wear, we did not see as serving any intellectual goal.”
Multiple professors also argued in support of stricter, earlier deadlines for declaring secondary fields so that smaller departments especially would have a better idea of student interest.
As of this Monday—the deadline to declare a secondary field—46 percent of the class of 2012 has declared a secondary field, up 14 percent since the class of 2009.
—Staff writer Radhika Jain can be reached at radhikajain@college.harvard.edu.
—Staff writer Kevin J. Wu can be reached at kwu@college.harvard.edu.