But Rounds admits that there are also disadvantages to teaching Extension School students. "It is much harder to have individual contact with students, since we have no office hours," he says. The chemistry professor tries to compensate by having students call him, and by passing out more problem sets.

Program's Metamorphosis

The University's extension has grown by quantum leaps since Harvard President A. Lawrence Lowell opened the school's doors in 1910. Back then, 863 people registered for 16 courses. This year more than 9250 students have enrolled in 500-plus courses-a program second only to Northeastern in size in the Boston area.

There have been changes in the student body, as well. During the first year of the program's existence, two-thirds of the enrolled students were female, none were college graduates, and the average age was 35.

The ratio of women to men for the current academic year is three-to-two. Seventy-seven percent of the program's students, whose median age is 29, have already earned college degrees.

Shinagel says he is pleased with the changing shape of the student body.

"This shows that we are serving a need for the people in the community," he says. "It is continuing adult education in its purest sense. The students are not here to get credentials, but to get aneducation."

This year also marks the first in Extension School history in which the majority of students were veterans of the program. Fify-three percent of the students who enrolled last fall had taken Extension courses before, as opposed to only 36 percent the year before.

Carrying Equal Weight

While speaking at commencement exercises two years ago, President Derek C. Bok discussed the impact of non-traditional students on the future of universities.

"They are returning us to the medieval university where people of all ages gathered for study and learning," Bok told graduates. "[Non-traditional students] are changing the face of Harvard and confronting us with some of our most interesting challenges."

"At some point, we will need to start to choose between traditional and non-traditional programs, and to treat the latter as integral parts of our educational enterprise, not as marginal remnants at the edge of Harvard's affairs."