The caption is wrong. This is actually the new Task Force just appointed by Dean Knowles, and headed by Theda Skocpol. She is continuing her campaign to become FAS Dean. Or is it Head of the Charles?
Dear Colleagues: I write to inform you of a new Task Force that I hope will help each of us to improve our teaching skills, and to signal that Harvard -- as an institution -- aims to support pedagogical excellence. With President Bok’s encouragement, I have appointed a Task Force on Teaching and Career Development. This Task Force will be led by Theda Skocpol, Professor of Government and Sociology and Dean of the Graduate School, and will have a short-term mission: to consider what the Faculty of Arts and Sciences does -- and what it can do better -- to support and reward a commitment to the steady improvement of teaching. The creativity and dedication that so many of the Faculty show as teachers are well-known. Yet what we do, as an institution, to reward and encourage improvement in this area is less clear. I have therefore asked the Task Force to examine several matters: how the FAS currently evaluates teaching and contributions to curricular development; what role teaching plays in the training of our graduate students and in our decisions to hire and promote faculty; and what we do to aid and encourage pedagogical innovation and excellence on a continuing basis. In all these areas, I believe we can do better. In consultation with Professor Skocpol, I have invited eight senior colleagues, all committed citizens of the Faculty with distinguished records in teaching and scholarship, to join the Task Force. These are: Andrew Biewener (Organismic and Evolutionary Biology), Benjamin Friedman (Economics), Mary Gaylord (Romance Languages and Literatures), Eric Mazur (Physics), Xiao-Li Meng (Statistics), Michael Puett (East Asian Languages and Civilization), Kay Kaufman Shelemay (Music and African and African American Studies), and Laurel Thatcher Ulrich (History). The Task Force will consult with faculty, students, and staff. It will gather and analyze data and interview material about FAS practices, and it will review the research literature and obtain information from other universities and from some of Harvard’s other schools. To gain a better understanding of how (and in what varied contexts) we teach our students and guide faculty careers, the Task Force will establish partnerships with a number of FAS departments. Across the humanities, social sciences, and sciences, departments with noteworthy records in teaching have agreed to share with the Task Force -- and ultimately with us all -- ideas, questions, best practices, and other information about their teaching cultures.
The Task Force will welcome ideas and comments from the entire FAS faculty, and I urge you to share your thoughts with any of the Task Force members individually, or via the Task Force e-mail address: teaching@fas.harvard.edu. More information on the Task Force will soon be available at the Secretary of the Faculty’s website: http://www.fas.harvard.edu/~secfas/. How long will this go on? The Task Force intends to share its preliminary findings with the Faculty in February 2007. We shall then have ample opportunity to discuss these findings, so that the final report, which I trust will be ready in Spring 2007, will be shaped by your input. The Task Force, President Bok, and I shall be most grateful for your ideas and observations.
With my best wishes, Yours sincerely, Jeremy R. Knowles
11:23 thinks to devastate by enumerating some very good things that Theda Skocpol is working on. She is continuing her campaign to becomes FAS Dean, huh? How so? By being a very effective Dean of GSAS? By efficiently running what sounds like a very timely task force? Shame on her for such politically obvious exercising of competence! How dare she seem to actually demonstrate she might be an excellent Dean of FAS, rather than lurking under a rock and sniping at others who are less competent! I hope Jeremy Knowles stays on long enough after a new president is appointed to help those who care about FAS see through the muddy waters of this place and make such an appointment. I'm off tomorrow on leave, and will hope to return in January and see if there is anyone better qualified for this position. Don't bother to reply to this post unless you identify yourself.
