Council Releases Second Part of The Treatise Urging Restoration of Liberal Education

Undergraduates often have ideas about what a college education ought to be and why it isn't, but it's seldom that they write a treatise about it to prove their point.

This is just what the Student Council has done in the past two years. In the fall of 1938, a committee headed by James Tobin '39 and J. Spence Harvin '39 sat down to figure out what ailed the Harvard curriculum. Throughout the year they held weekly sessions often running far into the night, and in June, 1939, they released a 13,000 word report urging the reinstatement of a liberal content at Harvard.

This report was discussed at length by the Faculty last year, and reprinted in pamphlet form was sent to colleges and universities all over the country. A Faculty committee appointed last winter has been discussing the problems raised by the Council, and will submit a report to the Faculty this fall.

One of the most striking suggestions in the 1939 report was the proposals that all undergraduates be required to take five "introductory area courses." Last year another Council committee drew up a detailed plan for these courses, including outlines and tentative reading lists, and published them in an 11,000 word report, excerpts from which are published on this page.