Int'l Concentration Discussed

The College curriculum in coming years may feature a very tangible product of recent efforts to "internationalize" the University, as administrators consider creating a new concentration in international studies.

Professor of Government Joseph S. Nye, Jr., who this fall was named Harvard's first-ever associate dean for international affairs, said a new department in international studies was one of his goals for the future.

Administrators are also discussing the possibility of offering undergraduates the opportunity to minor in international studies, allowing students to combine their traditional concentration with a special international program, Nye said.

The proposed changes in the undergraduate curriculum are only in the discussion stages, Nye said, but they have received consistent support from President Derek C. Bok and members of the Faculty's council of academic deans.

Bok has often said that American higher education needs to become more international in its focus to prepare students for an increasingly interdependent world. In an interview this week, the president said he did not expect opposition to Nye's proposals if they are formally proposed.

"I won't know the general sentiment of the Faculty until it comes up for discussion... but I'm not aware of any reason why it would be defeated if it's carefully thought through, as I'm sure it would be," Bok said.

But to adequately staff a full-fledged international studies department, Harvard will have to significantly bolster the number of faculty teaching in the area, Nye said.

Though the Government Department is nationally recognized for its international relations wing, faculty members said that Harvard's current contingent could not constitute its own department.

Even now, courses in international relations are over-subscribed every year, Nye said.

"We are very understaffed [in international affairs]," said Stanley Hoffman, Dillon professor of the civilization of France. "We would need to have far more [faculty] than we have now."

The Government Department last year lost the academic talent of one of its leading international relations scholars when Professor of Government Robert D. Putnam became dean of the Kennedy School of Government. Currently, the department is looking to make one senior appointment in international relations, and one junior appointment, Nye said.

Nye said that an international studies department would include faculty from economics, history and sociology, in addition to government.

A committee would have to be established to look into the proposal in more detail, Nye said. The faculty committee would determine what form the concentration would take, he said.

Nye said that a radical expansion of the international curriculum would require a major financial commitment from the administration.

Internationalization was high on Dean of the Faculty A. Michael Spence's fundraising wish list issued this fall. Spence has said that he will use part of the money from the coming capitalcampaign to strengthen Harvard's area studiescenters, offer more work-abroad opportunities forundergraduates, and increase the number of foreignstudents at the College