Fine Arts Non-issue

To the Editor: In response to Enrique Landa's column ("Retrospection before creation," The Daily Pennsylvanian, 11/14/00), I do not believe that the exclusion of Fine Arts courses from the General Requirement is an injustice to the students' "diverse education." First off, it is up to the students to pursue a diverse education -- if one wants to take photography, than one should do it, regardless of what requirement it does or does not fulfill. Because Fine Arts classes are small and intense, it would be awful to pollute them with students who simply want to "fulfill a requirement." They should be taken by students who are genuinely interested in mastering the subject matter. In this way, the current situation actually allows for higher quality classes. A friend of mine is a Fine Arts major, and he agreed with me, saying that all of the students in his classes are not concerned with fulfilling Sector VII of the General Requirement -- they are appropriately concerned with Fine Arts. Steve Davis Wharton/Engineering '01

Gen Req progress

To the Editor: Enrique Landa's column is right on target in its contention that "a true interdisciplinary education allows students to create, not just recite." While there are many different paths to creation (for example, any undergraduate doing serious research in any of the College's 48 majors is creating new knowledge in the process), certainly the fine arts offer us exciting, and as yet not fully realized, opportunities to allow our students to explore and enhance their creative talents. I am happy to report that one of the new courses being offered in the Pilot Curriculum next semester, "The Built Environment," will be taught by David Brownlee of our Art History Department and David De Long, a professor of Architecture from the Graduate School of Fine Arts. And I certainly look forward to more significant collaboration with the Graduate School of Fine Arts in the future, including the development of courses in the Pilot Curriculum with a studio art component. Richard Beeman Dean, College of Arts and Sciences

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