Faculty Review Honors, Expos 30

Talented writers in the Class of 2016 may have the opportunity to hone their literary skills in an advanced expository writing class that will serve as an alternative to the current mandatory freshman Expos offerings.

In the first Faculty meeting of the new semester, Dean of Undergraduate Education Jay M. Harris introduced a proposal for a new advanced course, Expository Writing 30.

At a meeting focused on student academics, Harris also presented a proposal to modify the system of Latin honors that will slightly ease the requirements for the summa cum laude degree, the highest academic honor.

HONORS WRITING

Harris said the Standing Committee on Writing and Speaking has spent the past year reviewing the expository writing curriculum and its effectiveness in preparing students for future writing courses.

The addition of Expos 30 to the course offerings is part of a larger initiative to prepare freshmen for academic writing.

Currently, the Harvard College Writing Program—the oldest such program in the nation, established in 1872—offers Expos 10, an introductory course for students who need additional writing support, and Expos 20, a mandatory class for all students.

The committee is also evaluating the effectiveness of Expos 10.

“We felt it was important to build bridges from Expos to sophomore tutorials,” Harris said yesterday in the Faculty meeting. “This is a major effort.”

Sosland Director in the Harvard College Writing Program Thomas R. Jehn and Harris are currently leading the review process of the Expos curriculum. Among the first proposed changes is a revised writing placement exam that incoming freshmen will take before being recommended for an expository writing class.

“We feel [the current placement exam] does a good job finding the weakest writers, [but] not finding the strongest writers,” Harris said.

Jehn and Harris said they hope to use the new test to identify students for the Expos 30 class that will start in the fall of 2012.

“The prospect of this class is very exciting for me,” Jehn said, adding that the precise number of sections for the new course has not been determined.

RE-WRITING THE HONORS

Harris held the stage to present a motion to revise the Latin honors system for graduating seniors, including reducing certain requirements.

The proposal increases the pool of summa cum laude recipients from a subjective number between the top four and five percent to a flat five percent every year.

Further, Harris moved to modify a policy that requires students to receive an A-level grade in at least two classes in the Humanities, Social Sciences, and the Sciences in order to receive the highest Latin honor.

“The handbook language that we use to communicate with faculty and students [about honors] is generally opaque,” Harris said. “So the committee has suggested some clarifications to the handbook language.”

If the proposal is approved at the next Faculty meeting, it will apply to the Class of 2012.

HONORS TEACHING

Faculty of Arts and Sciences Dean Michael D. Smith underscored at the beginning of the meeting his continued initiative on teaching and learning—an administrative campaign to boost the level of instruction across FAS.

To this end, Smith invited faculty members to a presentation headlined by three instructors: Computer Science Lecturer David J. Malan ’99, Professor of the Practice of Theatre Diane M. Paulus ’87, and Sociology Professor Christopher Winship.

Smith’s emphasis on teaching and learning has been credited by faculty members and administrators for helping to boost concentration satisfaction numbers in every concentration across FAS in the recently published 2010 senior survey results.

­—Staff writer Gautam S. Kumar can be reached at gkumar@college.harvard.edu.

—Staff writer Sirui Li can be reached at sli@college.harvard.edu.