Valerie M. Hastings ’07 is, to say the least, undecided on her concentration choice.

With the May 10, 2004, declaration deadline looming, Hastings has no fewer than seven possibilities on her mind.

“I’m looking at biology, chemistry, earth and planetary sciences, biological anthropology, English, linguistics and psychology,” she says.

But if many of the faculty and students involved in the College’s ongoing curricular review have their way, future generations of first-years will not have problems similar to those confronting Hastings and her classmates.

The proposal for a new curriculum, which will go before the Faculty next month, will recommend moving the timing of concentration choice back nearly a full year to some time during sophomore year, possibly between the fall and spring terms.

Associate Dean of the College Jeffrey Wolcowitz is currently writing the curricular review’s report, which will include specific recommendations and broad proposals from the four working groups that have been reviewing the curriculum since spring 2003.

Pushing back concentration choice gets to the heart of one of the main themes that Dean of the Faculty William C. Kirby has articulated in the review: increased student choice.

In his annual letter to the Faculty of Arts and Sciences (FAS) last February, Kirby also suggested the importance of faculty-student interaction, internationalization of the curriculum and scientific literacy.

The report will call for more College sponsorship of study abroad opportunities. This proposal would further increase financial resources for students going abroad, and would force the College to accept more credits earned by Harvard undergraduates studying outside the United States.

An increased focus on interdisciplinary study between and within departments is likely to be a dominant theme in the report, while other recommendations will include improving scientific literacy and the creation of a January term between the first and second semesters (see sidebars, pages 6-7).

Far from being minor administrative changes, increased support for study abroad and the potential move in the time of concentration declaration—in addition to a proposed elimination of the Core Curriculum—could reshape a Harvard education and free students to pursue a curriculum more of their own design.

BACKING IT UP

One of the greatest potential boons to student choice would be to knock off a semester of work in a concentration.

And this significant proposal is also one of the most likely to be recommended to the Faculty in its May 4 meeting.

“I think the strong consensus in the Steering Committee is to have concentration declarations be sometime in the sophomore year,” says Jay M. Harris, Wolfson professor of Jewish studies and co-chair of the Working Group on Students’ Overall Academic Experience.