Lewis attributes this phenomenon to the fact that students can take certain departmental courses to meet the science core requirement and to the fact that science core courses tend to be offered each year.

And Clowes Professor of Science Henry Ehrenreich, who teaches a science A course and serves on the Faculty Committee on the Core Program, says core science courses are often smaller than comparable departmental courses.

In particular, Ehrenreich notes that his course, Science A-16: "Relativity and Quantum Physics," typically has 50 students, while the Physics 11 series, "Mechanics" and "Electricity, Magnetism and Waves," typically draws 200 to 250 students.

Making Big Courses Little

Because humanities cores are frequently large, professors must make special efforts to make themselves and their teaching staffs accessible to students.

Professor of Chinese History and Philosophy Tu Wei-Ming, who teaches Moral Reasoning 40: "Confucian Humanism," a course which drew 470 students in the spring of 1994, says he reaches out to students in this course by teaching an additional section taught in Chinese.

"I got to know quite a few students in depth," he says. "These are not just students of Chinese origin but are also students studying Chinese in our departments."

But Tu says in a large course, contact between students and faculty becomes "voluntary."

"In a large course, quite a few students do not feel that they need to have contact with the instructor even though they interact with the [teaching fellows] quite frequently," he says.

The Room Game

Professors say one way of trying to make classes more intimate is to select the room carefully.

"When I was lecturing in Sanders [Theater], there was a pool of black," says Porter University Professor Helen H. Vendler, citing her distaste for the large lecture hall.

"I think it's important to see faces," she says.

Similarly, Adams University Professor John Shearman, who teaches a core course on Michelangelo, says he prefers not to lecture from a stage.

"What I like is a science bowl, where whatever the number is, I'm not up above speaking down to them," he says. "I don't like the almost metaphorical position of speaking down to an audience."