Edgerley Family Dean of the Faculty of Arts and Sciences Hopi Hoekstra brought a full agenda to the March Faculty Meeting, one that began with remarks regarding the continued “uncomfortable uncertainty” related to recent federal orders and anticipated effects on funding. Hoekstra spoke about the University’s guidance to “build financial capacity.”
“Even before recent events, we were organizing to address the challenge of our long-term sustainability,” she said. “One question that was recently raised: Can we, in the FAS, be more efficient? The answer is simple: Yes. This is something we have been working on since I first started in this role, so we have a good foundation from which to continue this work and something we are taking seriously as we move forward.”
She went on to say: “Regardless of discipline, we are fundamentally interconnected. As we navigate the challenges to come, that understanding of our mission and our unique community is what is guiding my thinking.”
During the hour that followed, faculty took up new and continuing academic business.
Faculty approved Courses of Instruction for the College and the Griffin Graduate School of Arts and Sciences for the upcoming year. The work of the Classroom Social Compact Committee, discussed at length at the February Faculty Meeting, was also revisited, with the faculty voting overwhelmingly in favor of new language for the Harvard College Student Handbook. This work, which aims to ‘engender a vibrant learning environment in our classrooms,’ aligns with broader efforts within the FAS to encourage open dialogue and engagement across differing views, using the tools and frameworks of civil discourse.
There were two presentations related to pass/fail grading. The Standing Committee on General Education co-chairs Fiery Cushman (Professor of Psychology) and Jason Ur (Stephen Phillips Professor of Archeology and Ethnology) proposed that students, beginning with the Class of 2029, be required to take GenEd courses for letter grades. Similarly, Statistics Professor of the Practice Joseph K. Blitzstein proposed that courses satisfying the Quantitative Reasoning with Data (QRD) requirement should be taken for letter grades as well, also beginning with the Class of 2029. Both agenda items were opened to discussion and will be voted on at the April Faculty Meeting.
Daniel E. Lieberman, chair of the Department of Human Evolutionary Biology and Edwin M. Lerner Professor of Biological Sciences, presented a motion to rename the Human Evolutionary Biology concentration “Human Biology, Behavior, and Evolution (HBBE),” which he said better reflects the interdisciplinary nature and the culture of the field of study. Additionally, he noted, the name HBBE would be less confusing to both prospective students and concentrators, and to graduate programs and employers.
Douglas Melton, FAS’ first Catalyst Professor in the Department of Stem Cell and Regenerative Biology (SCRB), gave a summary presentation on his decades of diabetes research that has led to current clinical trials with insulin-producing cells being successfully infused into patients. In introducing Melton, who helped to found SCRB nearly 35 years ago and whose work was inspired by his own son’s diagnosis, Hoekstra noted: “At a time when investment in science is under attack, it is hard to imagine a better example of how basic research fuels translational potential, and how the research done at Harvard has such a clear positive impact on society.”
Said Melton: “I believe this work couldn’t have been done anywhere else.”