Harvard faculty members vote in favor of pass-fail curricula change

Harvard University (Photo: Chitose Suzuki, AP)

Faculty members of Harvard University’s Arts and Sciences school voted Tuesday to allow students to take as many as half of their general-education requirements pass-fail, according to a report by the Harvard Crimson.

Though the full Harvard faculty must vote on graduation changes, the Crimson reports, if implemented the new policy would allow students to take as many as four required courses pass-fail. The ability to do so would remain at the discretion of the professor.

Also according to the Crimson, University President Drew Faust called the faculty’s decision “a historic moment.”

The concept isn’t a new one, particularly at Ivy League schools.

Both Harvard and Yale’s graduate law schools, for instance, have adopted pass-fail programs for which students are given a “grade” including Honors, Pass, Low Pass and Fail. Princeton allows students to take four courses Pass/D/F — that is, students will receive either a pass a D or an F. Brown University allows students to take any course as “satisfactory/no credit.”

And first-semester freshman undergraduates at MIT can’t receive a “D” or an “F” — if they do, their transcript won’t reflect them ever having taken that course.