Otto Eckstein, Warburg Professor of Economics, said Tuesday that no more than 15 of the 900 students in his Social Analysis 10 counter visit his office hours each year.

Stephen J. Gould, Aggasiz professor of Biology, said Monday that of the 280 students in his Science B-16 course only about a half-dozen attend his office hours.

Gould believes the problem is inhere4nt in the nature of the University.

"Harvard is a research institution where people are granted tenure for their research. Teaching is not the first priority," he explained. "Frankly that's why I believe you get a better undergraduate education at the small liberal-arts colleges."

But Eckstein disagrees, "For the good students the serious student the amount of faculty contact is sufficient available, and probably as common as in smaller schools," he said, adding that not enough students take advantage of the opportunities.

House Role

Eckstein and others called for increased emphasis on the Houses as settings for informal student-faculty contact. Recent years have witnessed a declining faculty presence in the Houses, Eckstein noted.

"There is no question that there was a shift in the involvement of faculty in the Houses in the late 1960s and early 1970s," Fox said. "There are some people who believe the amount of senior faculty contact never really recovered."

Image

At Byerly Hall--where admissions officers must daily contend with the image of Harvard as an impersonal university. Whose professors are seldom seen outside of lectures--Senior Admissions Officer David Evans said Limerick's report could reinforce that stereotype. "It's going to make our job a little tougher," he said Wednesday.

Narrowing the reputed gap between students and faculty will require greater courage among students as well as increased receptiveness on the part of professors, Limerick said.