"I think students would benefit from a real core curriculum--i.e., a set of fundamental courses, ordered, purposive, coherent," Bennett said. "I cannot discern such a core curriculum here."

But in the 10-year Core review, these harsh criticisms were not addressed. Instead, the faculty focused on the administration of the curriculum.

A main problem they identified is the creation of new courses. Core courses take one or two years to develop, professors say, and it is also difficult to get faculty to teach them.

"For many faculty members, to teach in the Core is to commit an unnatural act," Dominguez has said. "It's a lot easier to teach concentrators. You do not have to worry about the motivational aspect. You do not have to explain the subject matter."

Faculty are also averse to teaching large classes--the courses which form the bulk of the Core program.

"There is a clear correlation between general unhappiness and and the size of courses," says the Literature and Arts report. "The 'blockbuster' is a major issue that arises again and again."

Four Literature and Arts B classes held lotteries because of overcrowding during the spring semester. As a result, a new Core policy was adopted last month which prioritizes students in case of class overcrowding, says Assistant Director of the Core Program Elisabeth W. Swain.

Under the new policy, students who enroll in a Core course for Core credit will get priority over those who enroll for concentration credit, and those taking the course as an elective will get last priority, says Swain.

But the University now finds itself in a Catch-22: Professors, discouraged by the large lecture courses in the Core, are reluctant to teach in the program. And because of this lack of faculty, the Core must continue to rely on the large courses that the professors are avoiding.

Beyond the faculty recruiting problem, almost every Core area says in its report that finding teaching staff for its courses is a central issue. Because the Core requires specially designed courses that must be taught in addition to departmental classes, there is a perennial scramble for teaching staff in similar courses, faculty members say.

"There is a healthy tension between departments who try to have course offerings be as good as they can make them, and the Core which tries to do the same things," says Clowes Professor of Science Henry Ehrenreich, who heads the Science subcommittee.

To rectify the situation, faculty members have said that they are working to recruit more teaching staff.

"There was a general concern about getting a well-trained staff," says Lewis of the review. "But we are trying to do a number of things to increase the pool from which the teaching fellows and teaching assistants are drawn."

Lewis says this effort includes sending Graduate School of Arts and Sciences students information about becoming Core program teaching staff, and recruiting teaching fellows and assistants from other Harvard graduate schools and from the local community.

Teaching staff who are not enrolled at Harvard, known as teaching assistants, currently constitute 15 percent of the Core teaching staff.