Auditing

To the Editor of the Summer News:

I went to the Student Constituent Assembly the other night and was surprised that no one brought up what I considered a major error on the part of the Summer School administration: the charges for auditing courses. Presumably people come to this summer school because it is associated with Harvard, and because they expect to hear lecturers of Harvard calibre. But no one can take all the courses that seem interesting.

I suppose the Summer School feels that if it dropped the auditing charge, classrooms would be flooded with people not duly enrolled in the School. There are two easy answers to that: one could permit Summer School students who are taking at least one course to audit any other; people from outside the school would be barred. If auditors threatened to expand classes beyond the limitations imposed by classroom space, than auditors could be barred.

Harvard College, of course, permits any student to audit any course, and has never been fussy about permitting outsiders in either. Courses are closed to auditors when their enrollment is too large, but this rarely happens. Many students come to the Summer School to get rid of a requirement and would like to hear some of the outstanding lecturers who are here--not to audit all their lectures, but to drop by once in awhile. It would be nice of the Summer School to let us do this without paying $15 or $60 for the privilege. Edward J. Leonard