Meet the Demand

SHOPPING WEEK provides us with the opportunity to see which courses we are and aren't interested in. Unfortunately, many of us see interesting courses we can't take, because they are so interesting that everybody would like to take them.

Over-subscription: the very word strikes terror into the hearts of gutekers and schmoozers from NoHo to the River, Lotteries and interviews, election by class year, exclusion of non-concentrators--all seem unfair to those not making the cut. And they're right. It's true that if thousands throng to "Spots and Dots," the teaching staff can hardly be expected to multiply by a factor of 10 in two weeks' time. Director of the Core Curriculum Edward T. Wilcox said recently that the University "will continue to try, but we have been unable to find enough qualified TA's for a lot of the Core courses."

Wilcox has got a point, but on the other hand, there is no reason that over a period of several years departments can't expand the staff for courses consistently over-subscribed. These included Studio Arts, Science B-16, "Rice Paddies" (Historical Studies A-14), and the perennial favorite Spots and Dots (Lit & Arts B-16). Social Analysis 10, "Principles of Economics," manages every year to accommodate between 800 and 1000 students Students pay $15,000 a year, fulfill the Core requirements, and ought to be permitted to take the courses they want.

OTHER AREAS in which teaching resources don't pretend to meet student demand are in the battles for creation of such departments as women's studies, and in the departments arbitrarily restricted by the University to a few handfuls of students: Literature and VES are cases in point. Last week, perhaps 100 students showed up for the first meeting of an undergraduate Literature course which only admitted one-fourth or one-third that number. Whether or not the University believes literary theory is a subject worthy of more than extremely limited study, the combination of student demand and the adequate supply of courses at less stodgy institutions should persuade the administration to appease its high-paying constituency and future contributors.