Pondering Pre-registration

Do you know what classes you're taking next year?

A new proposal by the Graduate Student Council (GSC) has reinvigorated an age-old conflict between graduates and undergraduates about the idea of pre-registration.

Graduate students say that uncertain undergraduate enrollment in large classes often leaves them out of a job and searching for funds.

Adam P. Fagen, president of the GSC, recently proposed to the Undergraduate Council the creation of a non-binding system of preregistration for undergraduates.

But undergrads have often cited shopping period as one of the few things that an often large and unfriendly University does to look out for the welfare of its students.

The Conflict

Currently, there is no way for professors to know in advance the size of their classes, hence teaching fellows (TFs) and teaching assistants (non-graduate students hired as teachers) sometimes have to be laid-off for under-enrolled classes.

Jay L. Ellison, head TF for the "Literature and Arts C-37: The Bible and its Interpreters," says he has seen cases where teachers have been squeezed out because of under-enrollment.

"We ended up with very low enrollment, and this other TF and I had to flip a coin," says Ellison, who won the coin toss. (The loser is now at another university.) "If you are told you are going to have a position [and the course is under-enrolled] there are times when you can't get another job."

Erika E.S. Evasdottir, a TF in Women Studies 10a, says she has also seen situations where students have lost jobs because of variable class sizes but says she is still close enough to her undergrad days to sympathize with student concerns.

"I have totally been there when there have been four teaching fellows and someone had to go. It is a pain," Evasdottir says.

A standard, full-year, two course teaching load pays third and fourth year graduate students as much as $13,440, according to Russell E. Berg, dean for admissions and financial aid in the GSAS. (First and second year grad students receive stipends of up to $11,250 and usually do not teach.)

That means each course is worth about $3,000 of the $16,000 the financial aid office estimates a graduate student needs to live.

"The teaching fellows program is vital to their future academic experience, often leads to improved dissertation research...but its critical importance is its financial support," Berg says.

Evasdottir says it is sometimes possible to shift out the person who has another teaching fellow job, but that such a solution is not always possible.

One way to solve the problem of laying off teaching fellows without pre-registration is to purposely under-estimate the number of students in a class, which is the strategy adopted by the Core Office.

Elizabeth W. Swain, assistant director of the Core Program, says the Core Office makes an estimate based on factors such as the number of students in the class last time and the number of offerings in the Core area that year. Professors are then given funds to hire teaching fellows for two-thirds of that number.

Swain says the Core Office has a policy of not firing graduate students who have been hired, though she says the situation does not crop up often because of the conservative projections.

"If there are fewer students, we honor the commitment we had in advance," Swain says.

But professors and teaching fellows say that these under-enrollment projections often lead to another set of problems, namely of teaching fellows being hired at the last minute with little time for training or preparation.

The day after study cards are due (one week into the term) professors receive the final number of enrollees in their courses, and at that point they are obligated to find new teaching fellows.

Jones Professor of Classical Greek Literature Gregory Nagy, teacher of "Literature and Arts C-14: The Concept of the Hero in Greek Civilization," an ardent supporter of pre-registration for Core classes, says that trying to train his TFs after the course has begun can often end up "shortchanging both the teacher and the student."

"You want to be able to supervise the proper training for your TFs," Nagy says. "It is really a kind of seminar situation where, unlike concentration courses, you have to start almost a new apprenticeship."

While no one interviewed said that teaching fellows or assistants hired later in the game were less qualified, professors say that the ability to prepare before classes begin is crucial to the learning process.

"It is not fair to ask them to enter a course not having prepared over the summer," says Jan M. Ziolkowski, professor of Medieval Latin and Comparative Literature, and teacher of many core classes over the past few years. "It really puts an enormous burden on section leaders coming in."

The Proposal

Fagen recently sent an e-mail to council leaders inquiring about the possibility of voluntary, non-binding, pre-registration program.

According to Fagen, his proposal, which is only in its earliest stages, would ask students to submit a list of courses that they planned to take the following semester.

From this list, administrators could estimate the number of enrollees in each course for the following term, allowing professors to hire approximately the right number of teaching fellows for the course.

Fagen says this proposal would ensure graduate students' teaching positions without compromising undergraduate student choice.

"We don't want to say that we want to have a pre-registration system and then have something bad forced down people's throats," Fagen says. "I approached SAC about this, wanting to make sure that we work out something that is acceptable to both of us before going forward."

But at a discussion at the council's Student Affairs Committee Tuesday night, the matter did not receive such a friendly reception, according to SAC chair Eric M. Nelson '99.

"We discussed it in a preliminary way...and the members expressed several concerns," says Nelson, who is a Crimson editor.

Specifically, council members say they are worried that what began as an informal system might someday lead to full-fledged pre-registration and an abolition of shopping period.

"Obviously, the largest concern was that this kind of step, although it is non-binding and voluntary, will eventually lead to binding pre-registration," says Nelson. "It might be a prelude to a larger change."

But Ziolkowski says these fears are unfounded.

"I think if people air it out and discuss it without fear that it will lead to a totalitarian no-choice system, something could be resolved," says Ziolkowski.

Nelson says he will relay the concerns of the council to Fagen and will broach the subject at the next Committee on Undergraduate Education (CUE) meeting.

The freedom to change classes after the beginning of the term has been a part of the Harvard system for at least a hundred years, according to Secretary to the Faculty John B. Fox Jr. '59.

"Formalized programs for changing programs are mentioned very early in the century, and the present system of drop/add petitions was in place by 1917-18," Fox writes in an e-mail.

Pre-registration has often been discussed at Faculty Council meetings over the years, most recently in the spring of 1995, but has never received extensive enough support to become an issue at a full faculty meeting, Fox says.

Logistical Concerns

Fox says that there are a number of pragmatic reasons why the faculty has decided that pre-registration would be difficult to implement.

"Pre-registration means...students providing an intention of what choice to make before the courses get underway," Fox says. "[Students] would need access to a course catalog, a CUE guide, published syllabi and adequate advising."

According to officials in the Registrar's office, course catalogs are not available until the late summer, and to make them available by early May would require a major shift.

As of last year, departments are required to submit course descriptions by May 1. The full faculty votes on a final draft prepared by the registrar's office on May 24, it is sent to the publisher on June 28 and comes back to the registrar's office in early August.

Therefore the registrar needs at least seven weeks to turn around a catalog, meaning that under a system of pre-registration, departments would have to submit course descriptions nearly two months sooner than under the present system, which would entail a major change, says a staff member in the Registrar's office.

Another problem cited even by faculty members who support limited pre-registration is that first-years would have no way to select their courses.

This problem might be particularly troublesome for Core offerings which often vary in size because nearly half of the enrollees in the fall semester are first-years, according to Swain.

Cheaper Book Prices

One area where students would certainly benefit from pre-registration is in terms of Coop book prices.

According to Evan P. Mooney, department manager of the Coop, many publishers charge book stores a fixed percentage of the cost of the books they return. These restocking fees, he says, can be as much as five percent.

The Coop has a return rate of nearly 30 percent, much of which can be attributed to shopping period, Mooney says.

"It makes things much more challenging," Mooney said in the midst of the book craze at the beginning of fall semester. "Some Core classes will have an enrollment of 60, then enrollment balloons to 200, and then back to 60 again."

The result of this uncertain process is a higher price for books than would be expected under pre-registration.