Out of Chaos, More Chaos

SOMEONE in University Hall a bright idea this summer for cutting down the chaos shopping period brings to the Core--a chaos which last February reached epic proportions and permanently besmirched the reputations of some popular courses, such as the crisis-ridden Literature and Arts B-16. This fall's innovation is not philosophical--like some officials' previous, rejected proposal that students be required to reregister for courses--but merely procedural. The syllabi of all Core courses have been bound into a booklet for easy reference, thus eliminating, it was hoped, the crowds who clog lecture halls merely to pick up the reading list.

It was a good idea, but it won't work. And the reason was readily visible a Registration Monday where staffers at a table were hawking the convenience--for $5.00.

Why offer a convenience at all if the price will preclude impulse buying? Gimmicks like this work only if they offer an easier alternative to the status quo. There is a special brand of arrogance in Harvard's assumption that, to every student, the "inconvenience" of spending $5.00 is negligible compared with the inconvenience of pavement pounding in search of classes. If binding the booklets cheaply and distributing them free is prohibitively expensive, the College should simply have them available through Lamont and House Libraries.

Maybe the shopping crunch is avoidable; maybe most first-week visitors really could choose classes sight unseen. Maybe it's that simple. Too had we'll never know.