A few professors do try to maintain contactwith students.

"I lead section to stay in touch withundergraduate thinking," says Professor ofGovernment Peter A. Hall, who teaches HistoricalStudy A-72. "Without leading section, it is harderto assess whether the material is going over,being understood."

But most professors rely on office hours, wherestudents can sometimes encounter lines and crowdsto speak to their teachers.

"In office hours there are typically morestudents outside the office than can be handled,"says Associate Professor of Government AshutoshVarshney, who teaches Foreign Cultures 14.

Many students simply end up avoiding officehours altogether.

"A lot of these professors are so hard to getto," says Evelyn J. Kim '95. "With 15 peoplewaiting for office hours, what's the point?"

Huge core classes are also hard toorganize and administer, teaching fellows say.

"The classes are very large and theadministration is rough," says Norman Grogin, a TFin Science A-35. It is "hard to keep lines ofcontact open," he says.

The time spent organizing textbooks and roomsfor sections often wastes classtime in the hugecores, TFs say. The logistics are complicated bythe shopping period rush.

As late as mid-March, students in ForeignCultures 40 still had no books and couldn't readfor their looming midterm, TF Tonia Sharlach saidat the time.

"The apparatus for handling such a large classdoes not seem to be working," she said. "Thestudents are really frustrated....Even if theywant to do the reading, they cannot find it."

Some teaching fellows also complain of the coreoffice's inability to deal with the needs of a bigclass.

One teaching fellow, speaking on condition ofanonymity, says that when he asked the core officefor help, staff members were "unspeakable rude."

"I have to pay for things out of my ownpocket," he says.

Other teaching fellows complain of not beingable to get desktop copies of course books forthemselves, and of the core office failing tosupply such needs as chalk.