No More All-Nighters

THE SCIENCE CENTER terminal room is no place for a Harvard student at 4 a.m. But for the 138 students enrolled in AM110. "Introduction to Systems Programming," early-morning hours with the computer lost their novelty weeks ago. Missed classes and mangled schedules have become the norm for AM110ers as they scramble to complete their weekly assignments.

Were this turmoil merely a result of the course's heavy workload, there would be less cause for concern. But slow computer response time, not heavy workload, lies at fault. Poor course planning and a shortage of computers have combined to create a painful computer crunch. Imagine attending a lecture where the professor pauses for a minute after every sentence and you can begin to understand the terrible inefficiencies involved with working on Harvard's computers.

The University's computer problems have not escaped notice. Three weeks ago, in an extraordinary move, the Administrative Board extended the withdrawal deadline for students in AM110. And in an effort to alleviate the computer crunch, an assignment has been dropped from the AM110 syllabus. While welcome admissions that a problem exists, neither action did anything to relieve the causes of Harvard's computer crisis.

Some of the inefficiencies peculiar to this year's AM110 resulted from poor planning. For example, when the University acquired the course's new language from Yale, the Elis did not provide all the necessary software, which finally surfaced several weeks into the semester. Partly because of this, students often waited hours at a terminal before they could enter the interpreter. (Imagine waiting several hours for each piece of required reserve reading and you can get a feel for the despair involved).

But most of these planning problems are being solved. Only by acquiring additional computers can the University ease the strain on its system and reaffirm its commitment to computer literacy, a commitment begun with the Core computer requirement and continued by the recent approval of a computer science concentration. Hundreds of students have signed a petition calling for beefed--up computer facilities, not just for AM110 but for thesis writers, low priority users and students enrolled in other computer courses.

Two options are currently under consideration. One calls for the purchase of several more of the VAX computers currently in use at the Science Center, while the other involves the purchase of a much larger or mainframe computer. While the fast-changing technology and the unpredictable future student demand for computer time make a wait-and-see attitude appealing to University planners, the egregious inadequacy of Harvard's computer facilities demands immediate and appropriate remedy.

The final AM110 assignment was due in section this week, and it is too late to help the victims of this year's course. But action taken now to improve the quality of Harvard's computing facilities can relieve future AM110ers and other computer users of this year's all-night agonies.