Student Presents Petition To Save Shopping Period

Less than a week before the full Faculty will debate preregistration, two students presented their case against the current proposal to the Faculty Council yesterday.

Nicholas F. Josefowitz ’05, who is also a Crimson executive, presented a petition he co-organized arguing against preregistration. The petition was signed by more than 1,250 undergraduates and sent to council members last month.

Undergraduate Council President Rohit Chopra ’04 was also present at the meeting.

“Speaking before the council was a sign that the Faculty understand that, given the number of signatures we received, this is an issue students really care about,” Josefowitz said.

The students focused their attack on how the current proposal—which requires students to get the signatures of their advisors and the professors for each class they want to switch—will limit student choice and push them into “safer,” more mainstream classes.

Although a few professors at the meeting expressed concern over the logistics of the add-drop procedures, the majority said they strongly supported requiring students to register for classes a semester in advance.

And Dean of the Faculty William C. Kirby has repeatedly said that he believes preregistration will increase course flexibility by reducing the number of classes that needed to be lotteried.

“It doesn’t strike me as rocket science to think about your classes a semester before,” he said.

However, Chopra said that though Kirby claims shopping period is not disappearing, in reality, it will be fundamentally changed.

“It is intellectually dishonest to say that shopping period will exist,” Chopra said.

Wolfson Professor of Jewish Studies Jay M. Harris said he believes that Kirby’s current proposal would significantly change the nature of shopping. He added that he is not entirely opposed to preregistration, but that it ought to be rethought.

“Preregistration is a great idea with one major flaw, the add-drop period,” Harris said.

Harris said that he thinks the Faculty have yet to realize the potential burden of signing numerous add-drop forms.

He said he would recommend preregistration coupled with a more liberal add-drop period at the beginning of the semester in which students could change classes without obtaining the signatures of their professors and tutors.

Josefowitz and Chopra also presented an alternative proposal, which they said they view as a compromise with the Faculty’s plan. It would require students to update their Plans of Study midway through each semester, the time at which the current proposal would have them register for classes.

The proposal said that by having students regularly update their Plan of Study—the list of courses they plan to take for the rest of their Harvard careers—administrators could gain preliminary enrollment figures “without compromising the pedagogical benefits of shopping period.”

While council members did not discuss the students’ proposal at their meeting, it may be raised at next Tuesday’s full Faculty debate. After that meeting, the proposal could come to a vote by the Faculty as early as April 8, and, if approved, would take effect for next year’s spring term.

But Josefowitz said he thinks Faculty members need to talk to more students to understand the ramifications of their current plan.

“Students have expressed strong concern about the proposal to the Faculty and they should make a concerted effort to understand how students use shopping period,” he said.

Committee Chairs Named

The Dean also announced at yesterday’s meeting the faculty co-chairs of the committees that will examine the entire undergraduate curriculum over the next few years. The committees are currently soliciting half a dozen other faculty members. Applications for the two student spots on each committee are due to the Undergraduate Council March 12.

“[The Deans] made it clear that these committees are going to be a lot of hard work,” said Professor of Chemistry Eric N. Jacobsen, who was chosen to lead the committee on general education. “It is going to be hard to balance teaching and research, but it is a great opportunity to have an impact on Harvard’s future.”

Jacobsen will co-chair the committee with Professor of Chinese History Peter K. Bol.

Professor of Economics Lawrence F. Katz and Professor of Romance languages and Literatures Diana Sorensen were chosen to lead the committee to study concentrations. Jones Professor of American Studies Lizabeth Cohen and Cabot Professor of Biology Richard M. Losick will head up the committee on pedagogy and Harris and Professor of Government Lisa L. Martin will lead the committee charged to evaluate overall academic experience.

“We looked for faculty with a wide range of intellectual backgrounds and research interests, who were all strongly committed to undergraduate education,” said Dean For Undergraduate Education Benedict R. Gross ’71.

Gross said that the committees will meet several times this spring, begin researching over the summer and hit the ground running next fall.

—Staff writer Jessica E. Vascellaro can be reached at vascell@fas.harvard.edu.