Summer Shortage

Both in content and make-up the 1947-48 catalogue of courses improves markedly upon its immediate predecessor. So far as the fall and spring terms go, the catalogue has grown in thickness and quality back to 1940 dimensions. Furthermore, it celebrates the return to business as usual by reviving the prewar practise of bracketing courses omitted for one year, but to be resumed the following year. Only the summer term remains as a blight upon an otherwise noteworthy issue of the Official Register of Harvard University.

Last year's summer catalogue was notable for its slenderness in general and for its lack of "big names" in particular. This year again, due to a Faculty ruling that no one shall be forced to teach three terms in succession, many of the courses will be given by visiting professors and local instructors. The distinguished quality of some of the visitors--C. Vann Woodward of Johns Hopkins University, for example--and a few sparks from the local stars--Associate Professor Louis Hartz will give Government 1b--take some of the curse off this situation. It remains, nonetheless, far short of ideal.

As for the number of offerings, the improvement in some departments is great, while others have actually shrunk their lists. The Social Sciences have increased the number of offerings to the point where most students will find something worth taking, either for concentration or for distribution. But most of the other departments stand precisely where they stood last summer, and English has retreated from last year's wide selection of five undergraduate courses to a token three.

The core of the problem is manpower. Courses cannot be given without teachers, and most members of the faculty quite naturally prefer to restrict their teaching to the fall and spring terms and their vacationing to the sticky summer. Nonetheless, in the face of the demand for a summer term, some men, such as Professor Hooton, have seen their way clear to teaching three terms in a row: a few more Faculty Richards could have made the difference between the current sluggish summer program and a fully satisfactory one.