Life Sci Reforms Advance

Potential life sciences concentrators in the Class of 2010 may face a completely new array of choices when they arrive on campus next fall.

Voting unanimously, the Faculty Council—the highest governing board of the Faculty of Arts and Sciences—approved a restructuring of life sciences concentrations yesterday that would eliminate biology in favor of a cluster of smaller, more specialized departments.

The motion, put forward by Professor of Anthropology Daniel E. Lieberman, still awaits approval from the full Faculty before any changes can be implemented and could be passed as early as next week.

“We are completely revising and reorganizing all the life sciences concentrations,” Lieberman said.

Separate concentrations in Organismic and Evolutionary Biology, Human Evolutionary Biology, Neurobiology, and Chemical and Physical Biology may be created. The current Biochemical Sciences concentration would also be renamed “Molecular and Cellular Biology.”

“Concentrations that are currently available don’t really fit the needs of students,” Lieberman said.

If approved by the full Faculty, the cluster of new concentrations would mark the first time a concentration has been created since 1992, when the Environmental Science and Public Policy program was approved.

The motion states that, starting with the Class of 2010, incoming students will no longer be able to declare biology as their focus. Current undergraduates will have the option of keeping their current concentrations or switching as soon as the new cluster is implemented.

“Everyone agrees that it’s better to have smaller concentrations, where there is more faculty interaction. It’s more intimate, it’s more focused,” Robert A. Lue, the director of life sciences education said. “The idea is to have fields that are more reflective of what science is today.”

The new cluster of courses will also stress research opportunities for students long before senior theses, Lieberman said.

“Harvard is arguably the world’s best place to do the life sciences,” he said. “There’s amazing research going on and the curriculum wasn’t really reflecting that.”

In addition to encouraging research, the new cluster of concentrations will offer a “consistent common foundation” across the life sciences which facilitates switching between them, Lue said.

Council members offered unanimous support for the motion, greeting the presentation with a round of applause.

“I think the only question that was raised was what it was going to cost and who was going to pay for it,” Council member and Professor of the History of Science Everett I. Mendelsohn said.

The legislation will be placed on the docket for a vote at either the April 18 or May 2 full Faculty meeting, he said.

Council members also passed a motion pushing for all courses of five or more students to be evaluated using CUE forms. Currently, professors may opt out of CUE evaluations.

“By and large we’d like to see all courses evaluated,” Mendelsohn said. “Teaching fellows deserve that kind of comment on their work.”

Director of the Office of International Programs Jane Edwards presented a proposal to the Council asking that significant international experiences be noted on transcripts. While the Council expressed strong support for international experiences, some doubted whether transcripts were the proper place to offer recognition, Mendelsohn said.

“There was a question whether things which are not academic ought to show up on a transcript,” Mendelsohn said.

The Council did not discuss the upcoming search for a replacement for Dean of the Faculty William C. Kirby, who will step down June 30.

—Staff writer Allison A. Frost can be reached at afrost@fas.harvard.edu.