Introduction

The House System

From the beginning of his presidency, A. Lawrence Lowell aspired to create a residential system for Harvard College modeled on Oxford and Cambridge Universities. In 1928 the generous gift of a Yale alumnus, Edward S. Harkness, made that ambition a reality. Three entirely new Houses were constructed and four others created from existing residential halls, establishing the nucleus of the current House system.

All Harvard upperclassmen have a House affiliation. (The freshmen live in dormitories located within or adjacent to Harvard Yard. During their first year in the College they are advised by the Office of the Dean of Freshmen.) Most upperclassmen live in the Houses, each of which also affords a dining room, a library, and a variety of activities designed to foster the easy mix of social and intellectual life that President Lowell envisaged for the House system. For example, the Houses may offer seminars for course credit. (See Course Administration: Special Types of Courses, Freshman and House Seminars.) They routinely sponsor language tables and tables where students interested in a specific pursuit can gather to exchange ideas. Every term the Houses hold faculty dinners to permit undergraduates to invite their instructors for an evening of relaxed conversation and, conversely, to provide faculty members with a means to meet their students informally and learn more about their curricular and extracurricular lives.

Each House is overseen by a resident Master, usually a senior faculty member or senior administrator, and is also served by an Allston Burr Resident Dean. The Resident Dean advises students in the House on academic and personal matters and represents House members at the Administrative Board. (Instructors concerned for whatever reason about the performance or well being of an undergraduate should contact the appropriate Resident Dean or Resident Dean of Freshmen.**) Also integral to the life of the House are the Resident Tutors, who serve as social and academic advisers to the undergraduate residents of the House. They may in some cases serve as concentration advisers to the undergraduates, and they also fill a variety of administrative roles in the House. (Graduate students from the various Faculties may apply to the Masters for these positions beginning in late January.)

Faculty members, administrators, Cambridge community members, and visiting scholars are eligible for affiliation with the individual Houses and comprise the Senior Common Room. Participation in a Senior Common Room affords individuals the opportunity not only to meet people from other departments but also to make contact with undergraduates in the casual atmosphere of the House dining rooms or at the varied House functions.

The Core Curriculum

The philosophy of the Core Curriculum rests on the conviction that every Harvard undergraduate should be broadly educated as well as trained in the particular discipline of a chosen concentration (major). By Faculty vote, undergraduates must pass one letter-graded course in seven of the eleven areas of the Core Curriculum. All students are exempt from four area requirements on the basis of their field of concentration. The eleven areas of the Core Curriculum are:

Foreign Cultures	Moral Reasoning
Historical Study A	Quantitative Reasoning
Historical Study B	Science A
Literature and Arts A	Science B
Literature and Arts B	Social Analysis
Literature and Arts C