"People in the class aren't necessarily in theclass because they're interested, so discussioncan tend to lag," says Mark H. Baskin '95, ahistory major.
The answer to the lack of course selection is amore flexible core, students say. They would liketo substitute classes in departments for thedistribution offered by the core.
"My freshman year, I took six differentdepartment courses, so I wasted five electiveswhich they wouldn't let me count toward my corerequirements," says Matt S. Abramson '96, a finearts concentrator.
"The problem with the core is that it'sinflexible," Abramson says. "You have to take abogus core where they don't give you much exposureto the department or teach you much that isvaluable."
Most students say they are interested in takingclasses in a variety of subjects, but they want tochoose their own courses.
"I would have preferred a general class on arthistory," says Davis J. Wang '97, who tookLiterature and Arts B-39, a course that focused onMichaelangelo.
"My personal view of the core is that all thecore classes, not just the science courses, shouldbe susceptible to replacement by departmentcourses," says Elye J. Alexander '94, an Englishconcentrator.
Currently, only Science A and Science B allowstudents to opt out of cores for departmentofferings.
And lately, Professor of Astronomy and theHistory of Science Owen J. Gingerich, who teachesScience B-17, says he has noted an exodus ofstudents into the department offerings.
"Student enrollment in many of the very finecore science classes has been dropping below acritical mass because the students are going intointroductory courses," Gingerich says. "Theenrollment is half of what it was six or sevenyears ago."
But not every core class is hobbled bythe structural limitations of large sections,large lectures and lack of choice.
Juliet E. Brause '96 says literature and ArtsB-18 was one of the best classes she has taken atHarvard.
"I put in a lot of time," Brause says. "All theall-nighters I pulled last year were for thatclass."
Literature and Arts B-18 is a studio class,with about 30 students.
The coursework included such activities as atrip to Boston and building furniture, Brausesays. And Professor of Visual and EnvironmentalStudies Louis J. Bakananowsky knew everyone's name"after the first half-hour."
In fact, Literature and Arts B-18--with itssmall size, hands-on participation andprofessor-student contact--fulfilled the vision ofa core that draws people into new fields ofknowledge.
Brause says the class encouraged her toconsider a concentration in Visual andEnvironmental Studies, although she decided onbiology.
But in Harvard's core curriculum only about 30students each semester get to have thisexperience.
In the core, says Ian T. Kennish '94,"Sometimes there just doesn't seem to be that muchout there."