The Core of the Problem

According to Associate Dean for Faculty Development Laura G. Fisher, the faculty began to feel a crunch with the advent of the Core Curriculum in the late 1970's.

The implementation of the Core Curriculum demanded more from professors--especially senior faculty--but it was not met by an increase in the ranks of FAS.

Without additional faculty to teach the new curriculum, the Core offers less than 70 percent of the 132 courses it is supposed to offer.

"Faculty members are very scrupulous about covering their own areas," said Pedersen, "but we also try to mount a general education curriculum, with the Core and freshman seminars. That's hard to sustain with the size of the faculty we have now."

Fisher said that these requirements were concentrated in certain departments that overlap to a large degree with specific Core areas.

"We have an obligation to give students a broad curriculum of courses in Literature and Arts B that we can't meet because we don't have enough people," said Harvard College Professor Thomas Forrest Kelly, chair of the Music department. "The Core puts a little more burden on us."

A Seller's Market

The FAS administration is well aware of the need for more faculty--Knowles has consistently deemed it a top priority. But one of the largest issues facing FAS has also proved one of the most difficult to address.