A year of reports

Race relations, medical education, and undergraduate education. Big topics. But not too big for the big three administrators here. Dean of the College John B. Fox Jr. '59. President Bok, and Dean of the Faculty Henry Rosovsky, who devoted their annual reports this year to these very topics.

First off the block in April was Bok, who uncorked a sweeping broadside at the state of medical education in this country, saying undergraduates and med students have been overloaded with basic science to the detriment of other disciplines of which they should be aware.

"The blunt fact," Bok stated, "is that most [medical] students today are getting an education that is far too narrow to prepare them for the challenges that await them in their working lives." Bok offered praise for a controversial new pilot program under development at the Medical School, which will offer an alternative to the traditional med school curriculum of two years of classroom study, and then two years of clinical training.

Soon after Bok, Fox offered his own tome, this one a history and evaluation of recent race relations at Harvard. Fox essentially reiterated past Harvard positions--such as the University's opposition to the establishment of a Third World center--as well as emphatically stating that Harvard seeks neither "separation" nor "assimilation" of minority students, but instead a middle ground of "integration."

Finally in May, outgoing dean Rosovsky delivered his penultimate report, an attack on the stereotypical view of the University as a large, uncaring, research-oriented institution. Rosovsky, citing statistics from a survey of undergraduates he recently commissioned, criticized as false the assumptions that students here are herded into large lecture courses and have little contact with senior faculty.

"The story that emerged from the data suggests that Harvard undergraduate education is in many ways far superior to what our critics suggest." Rosovsky stated. "In fact, the evidence shows that Harvard undergraduate teaching is quite good."