A Letter to the Administration

Every year, we students receive a cordial letter from the deans of the College and of undergraduate education. Every year, that letter asks for a letter in return, offering our suggestions for improvement of student life. Well, we've finally gotten around to replying. Here's a list of our gripes, large and small, which we hope to see disappear this year:

1. The Core. We've been trying to coax the Faculty into shifting the Core to a system of distributional requirements for the last six months. Dean of Undergraduate Education Lawrence Buell did mention the impending review of the Core in this year's letter to students, and Dean Knowles stressed the importance of the review in a summer interview. We hope radical change is in the offing.

2. Advising. Last year's tragic events in Dunster House brought into question the effectiveness of the resident tutor system in the houses. The College needs a system of joint accountability, where a student's problems will not go unnoticed if he or she doesn't initiate the first contact with an advisor or service.

3. Teaching. We understand that the University is a research institution, but students pay to be taught. First off, we should expect that all instructors be competent in English. A common language is a general prerequisite for successful teaching. Second, it's time for a new kind of affirmative action, where a professor's teaching ability counts for something in the tenure process. We've seen too many junior faculty leave Harvard without tenure while students mourned.

4. Crime. We know we sound like politicians, but get tough! Let students know that they won't be coddled in the event of embezzlement from organizations, altercations on campus or petty theft. Laws are laws at Harvard, too.

5. Innumeracy. 2+2=3. That's what you may think if you're a humanities major at Harvard. For a school that claims to produce well-rounded students able to survive in a world increasingly driven by technological issues, a basic understanding of mathematics is essential. We have three Literature and Arts and two Historical Studies cores. Why no math requirement? The QRR is a poor excuse.

6. Language Requirement. Anyone who has suffered through the lingual hell of a Harvard placement exam realizes the problems in this area. There is no coordination between the material demanded by the language exams and the material taught. If German A or French A is enough to fill the language, the exam should reflect that.

7. Food. No, not the quality-that's too old a horse to beat again. Students can move into the dorms six days before the dining halls open. Why not splurge and give us food, too?

8. Lighting. Why does almost every dorm room have a useless, ugly fluorescent light inside? Too weak for reading and often sporadic in response to the switch, these lights only cast rooms into a dim gloom. The University should end the charade of these lights--install real ones or simply tell incoming first-years to buy a halogen torchiere.