Harvard Committee Backs Off Religion Requirement

CAMBRIDGE, Mass., Dec. 14, 2006 — -- The faculty committee redesigningHarvard University's undergraduate curriculum is now backing off aprevious recommendation requiring all students to take a classdealing with religion.

The panel of professors is instead suggesting classes on "whatit means to be a human being" in a revised proposal released lastweek. The broader category would encompass religious thought, art,literature, and philosophy, as well as evolutionary biology andcognitive science.

The current core curriculum has been criticized for focusing onnarrow academic questions rather than real-world issues.

The proposals also call for a better understanding of Americanhistory and American institutions and are intended to make Harvardgraduates more responsible citizens.

The debate over a revamped curriculum at Harvard has beenongoing since the 1970s. Former President Lawrence Summers, whoresigned earlier this year, made reform a priority in 2001.

The original faculty proposal said students often struggle tomake sense of the relationship between their religious beliefs andthe secular and intellectual world and that religion is central tosome of society's most contentious debates, including evolution,stem-cell research and same-sex marriage.

The so-called "reason and faith" courses were intended to putreligion in a cultural and social context.

The recommendations were changed after two months of debatewithin Harvard's Faculty of Arts and Sciences.

Alison Simmons, a philosophy professor and cochairwoman of thepanel, said the changes were made because the group determined thatthe subject would be adequately covered by other categories.

The faculty panel is expected to release a final draft nextmonth, then the entire arts and sciences faculty will discuss theproposals.