Expos to Hire New Teachers

Because nearly 200 more students will take expository writing in the spring instead of the fall, the program will hire teachers in midyear, administrators said yesterday.

Richard C. Marius, director of the Expository Writing Program, said that the disparity is not unusual, but added that instructors hired at midterm could not be trained as thoroughly as those hired at the beginning of the year.

"We don't like hiring midterm. We have an extensive training program in the fall that all the section leaders go through," Marius said. "Teachers hired in the middle of the year have to go through an accelerated training program...It makes their jobs tougher starting midway through the year."

Marius said about 953 students will register for Expos this spring, as opposed to about 750 this fall.

"We try to get an 800 and 800 split between the two terms, but we usually have to shove forward students for a variety of reasons. It's not unusual for us to end up with a 700 and 900 split," said Marius.

Julia Hendrix, administrative assistant for Expos, said that the increase in spring enrollment would not affect students' chances of getting their first or second choice course.

The increase in enrollment is a result of a number of factors, including about 75 students in Expos 10, who must take another term, and 43 returning and transfer students, said Marius.

Expos is preparing for this increase by adding six sections in the spring over the 58 initially planned, said Marius.

The program will hire another two or three teachers to cover the additional spring sections, said Marius. He said that about two additional teachers are hired every year for the spring term.

Part of the difficulty in maintaining a large enough teaching staff is the high turnover rate of expository writing teachers, Marius said. The average stay of an instructor in the program is four years, although some leave after one year, and some stay as long as eight, he said.

"People are always dropping off. It's probably the lowest paid job at Harvard for people who do full-time teaching," said Marius.

"I'm always training, always hiring, always saying goodbye," said Marius. "Expository Writing is like a revolving door."