In Defense of the Shared Course Initiative

Harvard is running low on cash — and low on students in some of its smallest classrooms. The solution? Sharing.

Long before Harvard’s budget crisis, administrators were already grappling with how to sustain small language courses.

As an answer, Harvard’s Faculty of Arts and Sciences is considering the “Shared Course Initiative,” which would allow students to take less commonly taught language courses across peer institutions via the use of remote, in-class learning. An FAS advisory group proposed a pilot of the idea via a two-year program with Columbia University this upcoming fall, with plans to add Yale and Cornell to a five-year agreement in 2028 if it proves successful.

The program is a great idea. It would expand access while redistributing instructional costs across universities, thus addressing the challenge of sustaining the small, resource-intensive character of language courses.

Critics contended that this program could embody a pretext for hollowing out on-campus instruction, but in reality, the model represents a pragmatic strategy to promote language education. It provides three main benefits: preserving access to small language programs, expanding the range of languages available to students, and allocating instructional resources more efficiently.

Preserving access is axiomatic for the University. The Shared Course Initiative offers an alternative to leaving smaller language courses vulnerable to cuts or downsizing given the difficulty of sustaining instructional support for courses with only a handful of enrollees, a susceptibility that has amplified under current financial strain.

After all, providing support for small and logistically tricky courses is no less important in moments of austerity. Allowing small language offerings to survive preserves the curiosity-spanning breadth that is crucial to a strong liberal arts model.

And yet, the initiative wouldn’t merely preserve access — it would expand it. That’s because about one-third of SCI’s languages are not currently accessible at Harvard, including Cherokee, Punjabi, and Khmer.

For some students, the program may be the only formal path to proficiency in a language tied to their identity or family. For others, the added language access can help unlock new regions to study in depth, different archives to use, or new places to perform fieldwork.

Language classes can be expensive and hard to staff given their specialized faculty. Tutorials can enroll as few as one or two students — in the fall 2024 semester, such courses cost Harvard around $440,000. Conversely, SCI courses would include up to 12 students across institutions, thereby pooling demand and maximizing instructional resources.

Especially in today’s climate, with the FAS facing a $365 million structural deficit, finding and supporting more efficient avenues for allocating resources is essential. The initiative’s planning predates Harvard’s current budgeting mayhem, and yet it certainly has risen to meet this moment.

Some may resist this pilot program out of concern that it could set a precedent for broader reliance on partnerships across departments, risking the erosion of distinct academic communities and Harvard-specific educational experiences. Language learning, in particular, depends on in-person discussion, cultural immersion, and faculty relationships. For these critics, outsourcing instruction risks making education feel more transactional and weakening the intellectual community that defines Harvard.

But this concern overlooks the exigency of the moment. Faced with mounting financial pressure and the ongoing challenge of sustaining ultra-small language programs, this initiative is less a wholesale shift toward outsourcing than a targeted reallocation of resources for good cause.

In this moment, consolidation may be exactly what the University needs to exemplify — preserving its ability to serve academic niches while ensuring they remain financially sustainable.

Ava M. Ribaudo ’27, a Crimson Editorial editor, is a Government concentrator in Leverett House.