"In each [Core] category, courses seek tointroduce students to major approaches toknowledge," writes the former dean of the faculty,who was the Core's chief architect. "Choice ispreserved because major approaches are presentedin various forms: courses with differing content."

But under this philosophy, at least somedepartmental courses should count for Core credit.And even nonequivalent departmental courses wouldseem to fulfill the stated aims of the Core.

Yet despite the emphasis on method over matter,the Core Committee is unlikely "to extend thedoctrine of `free substitutability' to areasbeyond Science A and B," according to Dean ofUndergraduate Education Lawrence Buell, who sitson the committee with nine other faculty members.

Director of the Core Program Susan Lewis saysthat the probability of departmental coursesoutside the sciences being accepted for Corecredit is "not high in the near future."

Lewis says that the developers of the Coreagreed not to permit such substitutions. She addsthat the rationale "could not be explained in twolines in The Crimson."

Departmental courses tend to be"discipline-specific" whereas their Corecounterparts aim at acquainting the uninitiatedwith a department's methodology, Buell says.

But it is this characteristic of the Core thatrankles many undergraduates. Many say they wouldprefer to "approach" knowledge with greatersophistication.

"Core courses are usually tailored to thelowest common denominator," says Ben A. Auspitz'95. "If a student is very interested inphilosophy, he or she cannot pass out of the MoralReasoning requirement with a philosophy course."

And students not prepared for a more advancedstudy of a Core topic are no better off, Auspitzsays. These students are short-changed, he says,because too often the courses are not broad enoughin scope.

Examples of such specialized courses includeHistorical Studies B-17, "Power and Society inMedieval Europe: The Crisis of the 12th Century,"and Literature and Arts B-35, "The Age of SultanSuleyman the Magnificent: Art, Architecture andCeremonial at the Ottoman Court."

"Broader courses would better serve thepurposes of the Core," Auspitz says. "Why shouldsomeone who knows nothing about music take acourse only on Beethoven?"

Oppostion to Core

Opposition to the Core has not been restrictedto the program's inflexibility and the quality ofofferings. Some of the most strident criticism hasbeen aimed at the very shape and model of theCore.

In 1979, the Core Curriculum replaced theGeneral Education Program, which emphasized theclassics of Western literature and philosophy.

The General Education Program, whose philosophywas laid out in a text nicknamed the Redbook, wasinfluenced by the shock of World War II andstressed the importance of learning "the conceptof free government."