But TFs say Sandel usually reads only aselected sample of papers. "We don't usually givehim papers we find the most discouraging,"Muirhead says.

Final exams receive the same treatment, onlythere is no general meeting before the TFs begingrading.

Althought the grading distribution concernedmany students last semester, most were pleasedwith Sandel's interaction with the 930 students inand outside of class.

"Most classes include the opportunity forstudents to argue with me or with one anotherabout the issues we are discussing," Sandel says.

Lisa M. Gans '94-'95, who calls herself a"Justice junkie," says she found Sandel's teachingstyle interesting and helpful. "He leads throughthe whole intellectual process," she says. "It'ssort of like a treasure hunt."

But other students feel the open-question stylemakes for a competitive atmosphere in lecture.

"The interactive classroom was a nice idea, butwith so many people, it was kind of frustrating,"Jaana Hansen '97 says. "There were a whole bunchof people who wanted to get up and have MichaelSandel memorize their name."

Sandel says he also tries to contact studentsoutside the classroom, calling such interaction"an opportunity for me." This year, he heldregular office hours and regularly ate in studentdining halls.

Despite its size, Sandel says it has not beennecessary to institute an admission lottery forthe course because there has always been a largepool of qualified graduate students available toact as teaching fellows. Sandel says he spendsmuch of the spring and summer preceding eachJustice semester interviewing and training TFs.

Student interest in the course has neversubsided either, says Sandel, as the assignedmaterial has shifted to include issues of currentdebate.

This year, for example, Sandel replaced thecreationism versus evolution in public schoolcurricula debate for the more relevant controversyconcerning gays in the military.

This year's particularly timely debate on themorality of homosexuality between Kenan professorof Government Harvey C. Mansfield '53 and NewRepublic editor-in-chief Andrew Sullivan drew afull house to Sanders Theatre.

But for those students who like the moreintimate and personal teaching methods, Justice,or any other class that nearly reaches quadrupledigits of students, may not be the ideal course.

"I've decided never to take such a large Coreclass again," said Talusan. "The section becamereally chaotic and overwhelming, so I didn'treally learn a lot. It was so, so big."

Kevin Davis and Jennifer L. Burnscontributed to the reporting of this article.