The Break of Day

Teaching a 9 a.m. class seems like a losing proposition. Not only do professors have to wake up early themselves, but they must watch their students drift off to sleep in the middle of their sentences.

But those who teach the dreaded earliest lectures say watching students fall asleep is at least something to laugh about.

"The one thing you need at 9 o'clock lectures is a little levity," says Arnold Professor of Science William H. Bossert '59.

Bossert is a long-time veteran of the 9 a.m. lecture, once a University staple but now confined to the schedules of unlucky pre-meds.

Even in his 10 a.m. Biology 19: "Population Biology: Ecology" lecture, Bossert says sleeping students are a fact of life. But the former master of Lowell House says he just keeps on lecturing.

"It doesn't happen all that often, but when it does I'm not offended by it," he says.

Professor of Astronomy Robert P. Kirshner '70 even finds classroom snoozing to be a compliment.

He has an innovative alternative theory to explain his students' in-class sleep habits.

"In my lectures, there is such a flow of ideas that a person's cerebral cortex just shuts down," he explains. "The students' brains are overwhelmed. They simply cannot absorb any more stimulation."

When Kirshner sees the telltale signs of impending sleep, he knows that his lecture "is just too good."

Excess stimulation is only part of a two-pronged problem, Kirshner theorizes.

Beyond an excess of ideas, he says a lack of oxygen and inadequate ventilation in stifling Science Center lecture halls also contribute to the problem.

"The mechanical ventilation system and global warming combine to produce a kind of stupor," he says.

But Kirshner doesn't think boredom is to blame.

"I consider that belief to be unworthy of both students and faculty," Kirshner says.

Many professors might not find sleeping students insulting. But that doesn't mean letting them off scot-free.

James E. Davis, senior lecturer on chemistry, sees his share of drowsy students in his 9 a.m. lecture for Chemistry 5: "Introduction to Principles of Chemistry."

He recalls one student who, for an entire semester, would sit in the center of the front row and listen enthusiastically for about 15 minutes.

"Invariably, however, he would fall asleep and his jaw would drop wide open, right there in the front row," Davis says.

Davis says he often yearned to stick a piece of chalk in the student's mouth.

Professors even swap stories about legendary pranks, he says.

"A student went to sleep in a very large class," Davis says. "The professor noticed and asked the class to leave very quietly and the next class to come in very quietly. Finally, the student woke up and looked around."

"He was shocked to realize that he was in a completely different class," Davis laughs.

He says he has always been tempted to play a similar trick on sleeping students in his own classes.

Bossert says he also has fond memories of certain sleeping students.

"I remember one time a student fell deeply asleep," he says. "His head fell back over the chair, pointing up at the ceiling."

"We didn't know whether to wake him or not," Bossert says. "It was kind of cute."

Professors have borne on with 9 a.m. lectures for years. But increasingly, with students sleeping through class and sometimes not even coming to class at all, some have decided that it is not worthwhile to continue the tradition.

"The day I saw the article about a proposed fourth meal in The Crimson, I decided that I surrender--no more 9 o'clock classes for upperclassmen," Davis says. "They just can't get themselves together in time to shower, go to the dining hall and get to class."

All jokes aside, the dilemma of dozing lecture halls does concern those at the lectern.

"The problem of getting people up for a 9 o'clock class is pretty severe," Davis says.

Davis remembers attending 8 a.m. classes in college.

But he guesses that the next generation of students will be even more spoiled than today.

"I ask myself," he says, "whether some day 9 o'clock classes will be as extinct as 8 o'clock classes are now."