On the one hand, the professor said he does not think he could fit Gen Ed 180 into the Core, which does not favor interdisciplinary classes. "It's an orphan," he said of the course. "When I first came here, there was a big push toward multi-disciplinary projects. But around the time the Core was established it kind of waned."

At the same time, Butler said he doesn't want to put the course, which examines ecological and environmental policy taught by a scientist, into the Applied Chemistry Department, where it might enjoy more popularity. He said he fears such a move would make the subject matter inaccessible to many students and said he expects to remain in Gen Ed despite sagging enrollment.

"As long as I have students who get something out of it, then I'll teach it," Butler said.

Many professors have also expressed a desire to remain in Gen Ed because departmental courses often exclude students who have not taken the proper prerequisites. And though some of the classes could conceivably be squeezed into departments or the Core, many Gen Ed professors say, for other reasons, that they like their courses exactly where they are.

"They come, and I teach," said Professor of Business Administration Thomas C. Raymond, who teaches Gen Ed 176, "Business in American Life," one of the most popular Gen Ed classes.

"In a way it's rather flattering that it doesn't belong in a slot, that people are just interested in it."

One student in the course agreed. "I'm using it to decide if I want to go to business school. This is probably one of the most practical classes at Harvard. It's unique," said Timothy J. Hart '86.

Fortunately for many students, those courses that are worth little to Harvard departments are worth their weight in fun. Medical School Professor Robert Coles' Gen Ed 105, "The Literature of Social Reflection," has built an almost legendary reputation as an extraordinarily stimulating class requiring only a modicum of work.

"I heard it was a gut. But then I went to it, and I loved it. Some poeple say you don't have to go to the lectures, but I'd go to them anyway," said one student in the class.

The fact that "The Literature of Social Reflection" couldn't be taken to fill a requirement didn't influence Carolyn M. Martin '86. "I had a lot of electives coming," she said.

Gen Ed, it seems, is destined to remain exactly what administrators pictured it to become seven years ago when Harvard gave birth to the Core: a haven for those maverick courses that should be taught, that people like, but that just didn't seem to fit in anywhere else.