Davis J. Wang '97 says he wants to take surveysin art history and European history.

"They should have civic courses that givepeople a basic foundation," Wang says.

Columbia University has a system of "greatbooks" classes similar to what many studentsvisualize.

Students at Columbia take year-long surveyclasses in "Literature Humanities," "ContemporaryCivilization," "Art Humanities" and "MusicHumanities."

Unlike the Harvard core's large lectures, allColumbia core classes are limited to 25 students,says Eileen Gillooly, adjunct administrativedirector of the Columbia core curriculum.

The small size is the "secret of theirsuccess," she says, though many of the courses areled by graduate students.

Student emerge from the Columbia core with acommon "understanding of what informs ourculture," she says.

Hankins, who taught in Columbia's core, says itoffers many features Harvard should emulate.

"Having a common body of knowledge benefitseverything that's taught...because there's acommon set of cultural reference points," he says.

At Harvard, Hankins says, he feels like he's"wearing a straitjacket" in teaching some classesbecause he can't assume students have any basiccommon knowledge.

"I can't take any kind of cultural referencefor granted," Hankins says.

Another alternative to Harvard's presentcore curriculum is distribution requirements,which would allow students freedom to pick anyclass form the different departments.

Since many students find core classes nodifferent form those in departments, many say adistribution requirement would simply widen thecore's field while not changing its basicapproach.

"It would give students more leeway while stillspecifying things they should know," says Alex J.Kim '96, a history and science concentrator."Sometimes in an area of the core, you'rehard-pressed to find something you're reallyinterested in."

"If we have to have requirements, I'd preferdistribution requirements," says Kimberly L.Pedersen '96. "There are many interesting coursesin departments."