The Core Can Be Overcome; Just Get It In Writing

To the editors:

Re: “The Dungeon on Dunster Street,” comment, Oct. 3.

It’s true. The Core office has stolen the soul of liberal arts from Harvard. It’s true that it can be a bureaucracy marked by arrogance in its personnel and inflexibility in its policy. It’s all true. The Core is, in a word, evil.

Still, this need not be cause for despair and lamentation. Sure, they’re annoying. But have you noticed that they’re all the way over there on Dunster Street? Have you noticed, as I have in the few times I’ve been over there, that the place always seems empty, with a lonely secretary and perhaps one staff person? Indeed, it is a dungeon, but don’t be fooled. They’re the prisoners, not the guards.

I am a joint concentrator in music and linguistics, and I plan on getting a citation in French. As such, I’ve needed (well, wanted) my share (well, more than my share) of Core requirement readjustments, special exemptions, and the like. All told, I filed three separate requests for adjustments of some kind to the Core office, and I’ve been granted every last one, in writing, and in a somewhat timely fashion.

The key is to remember that those ogres only have as much power over you and your curriculum as you let them have. Get your concentration advisor on your side. Get the head tutor of your department on your side. Get your resident dean on your side. Deans and tutors and advisors have the kind of influence over curriculum that Core staffers can only dream of. Then, file all the Core’s inane forms in triplicate. And most importantly, be prepared to sit in 77 Dunster Street for a good three hours and ask “But why can’t I…” over and over and over again.

Illegitimum non carberundum. Sure, it’s annoying. But if you really want them to do something for you, just don’t take no for an answer. And, if it’s a reasonable request, you should have no trouble getting important University Hall-dwellers on your side. Oh, and be sure to get everything in writing.

MATTHEW J. HALL ’09

October 3, 2006