You Shall Not Pass

On Tuesday, the Faculty of Arts and Sciences voted to approve the overhaul to the General Education program proposed this fall. One significant development from the original legislation, however, is a newly adopted provision that will allow students to take as many as half of their Gen Ed requirements pass-fail. While we remain firm in our belief that a simple system of distribution requirements is superior to any iteration of the current General Education program, the introduction of a pass-fail option has its merits.

As a liberal arts institution, Harvard is dedicated to graduating well-rounded students. And in Harvard’s words, the Gen Ed program “seeks to address the challenges of living in the 21st century, and to prepare students to find worthy ways of living in it.” Allowing students to take Gen Ed courses pass-fail has the potential to facilitate this goal by giving students greater freedom to take courses of interest.

In practice, of course, this reduced pressure could manifest itself in two ways, one positive and one negative. On one hand, opportunities to explore new academic disciplines in low-stakes contexts are crucial. Students who do not feel adequately prepared for a difficult physics course, for example, could benefit from not having to worry about a letter grade. Such an approach by students would be the optimal outcome for the new pass-fail option.

However, at the meeting where the program was approved, several faculty members expressed concern that the option would weaken the rigor of the Gen Ed program. That result is a possibility if students use the reform as means of decreasing their academic obligations and avoiding full engagement with their Gen Ed requirements.

Since the program has not yet been implemented, the ultimate outcome of the pass-fail option remains to be seen. It is possible that this avenue will help students’ broaden their intellectual horizons, but it could also incentivize students to effectively bypass several Gen Ed requirements by taking them pass-fail with minimal effort.

Despite the slow-moving bureaucracy behind the Gen Ed system, the way students respond will ultimately determine the fate of this facet of the overhaul. Students must take the College’s liberal arts mission as seriously as administrators and faculty do and put effort into the Gen Ed program. No matter how the program is structured, it is destined to be a failure if students do not see it as opportunity for academic growth.