Statement for Restoring Education at Harvard

The Undergraduate Council calls on the Harvard College Program in General Education to immediately take action to restore Gen Ed 1076 as an annual Gen Ed course offering. 

Long Textual Content: The Undergraduate Council calls on the Harvard College Program in General Education to immediately take action to restore Gen Ed 1076 as an annual Gen Ed course offering. Since the course’s cancellation, over a thousand alumni of the course have petitioned that it be reinstated, and hundreds more have spoken of its personal impact on both themselves and their career plans. Considering that the course is frequently oversubscribed and often runs a lottery for enrollment, moving this course to a less than annual basis makes little sense. 

Editorials have been written, and a few closed-door meetings have been held, but we have seen little public action towards reinstating the course. If it is true that the decision to not renew Gen Ed 1076 was primarily a financial decision, we ask that the Faculty of Arts and Sciences work with us to raise the money needed to offer the course again. 

The Program in General Education should either reallocate funds to make running this course a reality or work with us to accept donations to cover the cost of running this course and make up for Harvard’s budget challenges. It is clear that the course has hundreds, if not thousands, of dedicated former students who are willing to donate to such a cause. 

We understand that because of funding cuts, the Gen Ed program had to make “some very painful choices” in deciding which courses to offer this year and which to place on rotation. That being said, students and alumni have made it clear that Gen Ed 1076 was not the class to cut. We call on the Faculty of Arts and Sciences to work with all relevant parties to preserve this course offering.