Subcommittee on the HASS Requirement

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ABOUT THE SUBCOMMITTEE

Background

At its meeting of May 20, 2009, the MIT Faculty passed recommendations for changes to the Humanities, Arts, and Social Sciences (HASS) Requirement as put forth by the CUP with support from the School of Humanities, Arts, and Social Sciences.

This motion called for the creation of a new Subcommittee of the CUP to oversee the HASS Requirement. In passing this motion, the Faculty supported several high-level goals for the CUP subcommittee:

• Support, encourage and monitor the development of new innovative subjects and changes to the HASS Requirement; and
• Ensure regular review of new and existing subjects to ascertain that the educational goals of the HASS Requirement are met while maintaining MIT’s high educational standards.

Charge to the Subcommittee

It is the responsibility of the CUP subcommittee to guide the next phase of implementation of the revisions to the HASS Requirement, and to govern the HASS Requirement as laid-out in the motion approved by the Faculty on May 20, 2009. To that end, subject to final approval by the CUP and the Faculty, the subcommittee shall act with power to:

• Engage academic departments, the School deans, the Committee on Curricula (COC), the HASS Education office and other interested parties to participate in the process as appropriate.
• Establish criteria, procedures, and guidelines for the distribution or designation of HASS subjects that will satisfy the HASS Requirement and communicate these to the appropriate parties.
• Evaluate proposals from all Schools and assign new or modified HASS subjects to categories in accordance with criteria. These efforts should be coordinated with departments and sections, the CoC, and others as necessary.
• Review and approve any new or modified Concentrations within the HASS Requirement. This process should include collaboration with the departments and sections, the CoC, and others as necessary.
• Monitor policies associated with the HASS Requirement and revise or develop new ones as necessary.
• Maintain the official list of HASS subject category designation, HASS subjects to complete the HASS Requirement, and the official list of Concentrations. Report to the CUP yearly.
• Working with the CoC and the HASS Education Office, shall oversee individual student requests for exceptions or substitutions to the HASS Requirement.
• Propose to the CUP limited educational experiments that the Subcommittee deems appropriate for assessing changes to the curriculum and educational policies and practices.

For the Academic Year 2009–10, the Subcommittee will be chaired by Professor Jeffrey Ravel and have a membership as attached. In addition, the Subcommittee shall undertake the following interim responsibilities:

• Determine at what time and for which populations of students the revised HASS Distribution Requirement will go into effect.
• Develop criteria that can be used to identify which HASS subjects belong in each of the three new distribution categories: Humanities, Arts, and Social Sciences and develop and implement a procedure for categorizing new subjects. This process should include discussion of whether or not all HASS subjects will be categorized in the distribution system, and if not, how non-categorized subjects will be handled.
• Complete initial redistribution of HASS subjects in accordance with these new criteria by March 2010.
• Work with the Humanities Oversight Committee (HOC) to manage the licensing process associated with the current system.
• Consult with the Subcommittee on the Communication Requirement (SOCR) and the HOC to identify any effects of the HASS Requirement changes to the CI-H component of the Communication Requirement and address these issues appropriately.
• In Spring 2011, consider the existing membership of the Subcommittee and, if appropriate, make recommendations to the CUP on any adjustments to the roster that might be helpful in supporting the Subcommittee’s work going forward for the following academic year.
• Given the overarching goal of structuring the Requirement and the distribution so that subjects are freely accessible to all interested undergraduates, consider whether individual subjects or groups of subjects require enrollment management on a transitional or occasional basis. Particular attention must be paid to those distribution subjects that are also designed as CI-H, and the Subcommittee should work closely with the SOCR and the HOC to monitor this situation and take appropriate measures if necessary.
• Report findings from the FYF assessment to the CUP no later than the start of the fall term in AY2014 and make a recommendation on whether or not a First Year Focus subject should be required of all students as part of the HASS Requirement and, if so, what the criteria should be for such subjects.

Membership

Members

Jeffrey S. Ravel, Chair

Dean of SHASS Designate (Kai von Fintel)

Dean for Undergraduate Education Designate (Diana Henderson)

John Belcher

Andrea Campbell

W. Craig Carter

Robert Kanigel

Eric Klopfer

Rae Langton

Evan Ziporyn

Students

Adam Bockelie

Sukrit Ranjan

Guests

Bette Davis

Staff

Genevre Filiault

Martha Janus

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