Word: pipkin
(lookup in dictionary)
(lookup stats)
Dates: all
Sort By: most recent first
(reverse)
...have made faculty members more reluctant to require, even in the form of courses, anything from students that may provoke discontent. The last three decades since the institutionalization of Gen Ed have also seen a progressive disillusionment throughout American society that has affected Harvard. As Francis M. Pipkin, associate dean of the Faculty for the Colleges, says, "As opposed to 1945, this is a more pessimistic time, less expansive, lacking the 'upward and onward' mentality. When Gen Ed began, we had just won the World War and things looked rosy. Now it seems like there are problems everywhere...
...things progressed it became the issue of what the purpose is, and that touched education universally. He now wants a statement of what the whole thing means, a statement for medium-sized private universities like this about what should be done in the 1980s for undergraduate education," Pipkin says. This is certainly the aim, as Rosovsky admits, yet all statements of this sort are tempered by further disclaimers maintaining that "nothing radical will come of this" or "success is uncertain" or "the examination is worthwhile even if it fails." In a sense, Rosovsky realizes this is a giant undertaking that...
...make choices, but must remain within specific guidelines. Students, he feels, would seek a pre-professional education when they should be more expansive, more well-rounded. All this sounds, no doubt as it is supposed to, somewhat vague. But what this task force is heading towards is, according to Pipkin, "an elegant statement of some simple thing of where we all are going. But this is a difficult task in this day and age. Perhaps too difficult...
...Faculty's other associate dean in academic matters, Francis M. Pipkin, although a friend of Rosovsky's, is clearly not a member of his innermost administrative circles. As head of the CHUL, Pipkin presided over that body's waffling and disagreement, never giving much leadership. He concluded his tenure by giving the unwanted chairmanship back to Rosovsky. On other matters, his record is similarly ambiguous--his work in the tightening of honors standards was foremost, but every amendment he produced to plug the original legislative holes seemed to open several new ones...
...Pipkin says attempting to get faculty approval for curriculum reform is "like herding a flock of cattle." He and other administrators characterize faculty conservatism as "negative recalcitrance"--a minority opposition to reorienting toward more undergraduate teaching admixed with plenty of apathy. Many UHall administrators seem to agree that limited reform is in the air, but at best it is a type of reform that is unthreatening to traditional senior faculty prerogatives. An administrator notes that legislation allowing students credit for summer courses taken elsewhere under certain conditions--passed last year in the Faculty Council--might never have succeeded if brought...