University of Virginia Library

David Harned

Advocate Of New Avenues Of Education

Profile

By NEILL ALFORD III

"Certainly our department owes its
existence to expansion," said David
Harned, professor of religious studies,
"although now we are perhaps beginning
to get kicked in the teeth by it."

Thoughtful and articulate, Mr. Harned
serves as chairman of the rapidly growing
Department of Religious Studies.

"We would be nowhere without
expansion at the University" he added,
citing the multiplying number of students
who have enrolled in the department's
courses in recent years.

But Mr. Harned sees complications
rising out of the department's growth,
including the danger of exceeding a
"tenable student-faculty ratio," in
religion courses.

As a member of the Future of the
University Committee, Mr. Harned plays a
role in formulating plans for academics at
the University in the coming years.

"I'm really undecided about the
desirability of multi foliate expansion," he
commented. "The world is full of
ambiguities. You can't say this is good
and this is bad."

He feels that the opportunities for
personal interaction between students
and faculty have not diminished, and in
fact considers that faculty members now
seem less distant from students than
when he joined the faculty in 1967.

Hoping that the growing University
can explore new avenues of education,
Mr. Harned advocates the development of
strong honors programs, interdisciplinary
work, and especially interprofessional
education.

Photo By Saxon Holt

David B. Harned, Professor Of Religious Studies

"We Can Look Forward To A Blurring Of Departmental Distinctions."

"There is also a need for more
future-oriented courses," he added, "and
for more attention to the importance of
extrapolative techniques."

Mr. Harned received a bachelor's
degree from Yale in creative writing
before turning to graduate work, also at
Yale, in theology.

"There has been some loss of
consciousness of a distinctive heritage at
the University," he continued, drawing a
distinction between desirable and less
desirable traditions.

The students now "seem to take
themselves much more seriously," he
said, "although it is wrong to think that
this either is simply good or bad."

Mr. Harned attributes the tremendous
growth of the religious studies
department to "concern with the
socio-political makeup of societies and
one's desire to investigate one's origins."
He said that there has been a gain in
cross-cultural studies, reflecting a gain in
inter-societal communication.

"I think expansion has strengthened
undergraduate teaching," he said, "and it
is the undergraduate program on which
everything else depends."