Late Study Cards Show No Increase

Reducing shopping period from two weeks to one has had little effect on the number of students who are filing study cards late, a College official said yesterday.

Registrar Georgene Herschbach said that 129 of the University's approximately 6400 undergraduates did not file their cards on time. Although Herschbach said she did not have exact data from previous years on the number of late filers, she said this year's figures were comparable.

"We were not startled by the number of late study cards," Herschbach said. "That number resembles previous years."

Prior to last year, students were given two weeks from registration to hand in the cards. In an "experimental" effort to speed up sectioning, the College last year decided to cut shopping period down to one week.

Upperclass students this semester were required to turn in their study cards on Friday and first-year students on Monday. Since the system is no longer considered experimental, students turning in late cards will be fined $15, Herschbach said.

"I think that the core faculty prefers the shortened shopping period," said Elizabeth W. Swain '63. "We can be fairly certain by the third class meeting that everyone has heard the preliminaries of the class."

Moral Reasoning Offers One Course

Moral Reasoning is for the birds--the early birds.

Moral Reasoning 32, "Reason and Evaluation," is the only course being offered in that section of the Core this fall, and it is taught at 9 a.m. And even that course was originally scheduled to be given in the spring, according to Mellon Professor of the Humanities Thomas M. Scanlon, who teaches it.

"It's not so much trouble getting professors as a difficulty balancing them between fall and spring," said Susan W. Lewis, director of the Core Curriculum. "We try to distribute classes equally, but all those teaching Moral Reasoning are trying to balance a number of needs."

But first-year student David J. Kennedy said he thought the problem indicated a lack of committment to the needs of students.

"If Harvard really buys into the logic of the Core Curriculum, they would try to make it a little easier for students to fulfill," Kennedy said.

He added that the 9 a.m. lectures did not deter him from taking the class because he was used to an early commute to high school.

Scanlon said the early hour is "just the time it's always been. I can't really offer justification for that."

Enrollment is about the same as in past years, Scanlon said.

An increased number of Moral Reasoning courses this spring would prevent classes from being overloaded, Lewis said.

K-School Finishes Recycling Project

A pilot recycling project has recovered 5.14 tons of paper in the last eight weeks from the Kennedy School of Government and the nearby Harvard Institute for International Development, the project director said yesterday.

The drive, culminating conservation efforts begun two years ago by a K-School staff member, marks the first permanent, school-wide recycling effort at Harvard.

The program uses paper deposit bins placed in every office in each of the two institutions, said Kathleen Fox, Associate Registrar and director of the K-School recycling campaign.

K-School spokesperson Steven R. Singer said the program was "phased-in," beginning with can and bottle collection last year. Since then, the K-School has placed large crimson bins next to copy machines and in hallways to collect white paper. An in-house food vendor also stopped using styrofoam products this summer after student petitions.

Since the beginning of August, the K-School project has saved the equivalent of 87 trees.

Proceeds from the recycling, contracted to Boston-based Earthworm, Inc., go to local charities and homeless shelters, Fox said. Other University offices have contacted the school to begin setting up their own programs, she said.

The school administration paid for all the bins and for staff to administer the program, the director said. Some money has been retrieved, however, through lower garbage collection costs, she added.

The recycling effort stems from work begun in 1987 by Katie Smith, a K-School research assistant, who in turn galvanized student support for environmental conservation.

While looking to expand, the recycling program faces obstacles posed by an area newspaper glut and the complexity of recycling colored paper, Fox said. Both have made finding a contractor difficult, she said.

Coffee Stand Added at Coop

Students trekking to the Harvard Coop's third floor to pay their bills have recently encountered not only cashiers and computers, but also the food, drink and music of a mini-cafe.

The First Cup, a pushcart loaded with pastries and coffee pots, is the latest addition to the Coop's thirdfloor billing area.

The stand, which opened in August, is owned by Victoria J. Wallins, who leases the space from the Coop and nets all of the cafe's profits, she said. Purchases do not qualify for Coop rebates, and Coop charge or credit cards are not accepted, Wallins said.

Prices vary from 85 cents for an eight-ounce cup of coffee to $2.10 for Cappuccino. The Coffee Connection in the Garage offers identical prices, though those of Au Bon Pain, Express and Croissant du Jour are lower.

Wallins said her clientele is small but loyal, made up mainly of Coop employees and tourists.

Derek L. Horner '92 said The First Cup provides "good food, good coffee, good conversation" and that "the prices are competitive for [Harvard] Square." But the stand's location, said John F. Kirby '92, may be too remote for it to draw many customers.

But Allan E. Powell, the Coop's general manager, said the third floor location was intentional. "We wanted people to migrate to the third floor," he said. The Coop's sporting goods section is on the third floor near The First Cup.

Parking Lot Waste Reclassified

The Department of Environmental Protection (DEP) has downgraded the classification of the hazardous waste on the St. Paul's Parish parking lot behind Quincy House to "non-priority", a spokesperson for the DEP said yesterday.

This summer, the DEP made the University responsible for removing the waste from the property, which Harvard plans to begin developing this year. The downgrading does not remove that responsibility.

"The hazardous waste at the St. Paul's Parish parking lot has been downgraded to a non-priority which means that there is no immediate threat to the health and welfare of the residents or the environment," said Johanna A. Prindville. "The property did not get a clean bill of health, but the owner does assume responsibility for any costs that might occur."

Father John MacInnis, a chaplain at the Harvard-Radcliffe Catholic Student Center, whose office is directly next to the parking lot, said that "the waste was a combination of fuel oil tanks left over from the houses that used to be on the property and lead from the lead paint on those same houses."

MacInnis added that the property had been previously under contract with the Davis Corporation to build luxury condominiums, but that Davis "got out" of the contract as a result of the hazardous waste.

Quincy House Master Michael Shinagel, said he was unconcerned about the hazardous waste. "It is simply oil that will be trucked away. It's not going to be a problem," he said. "We are more concerned with the noise and destruction of our private life that the new housing might cause."