Such changes have inevitably had an effect on the department and its concentrators.

"Those that have been disenfranchised are the design people," says Robb Moss, senior preceptor and VES head tutor. "For those people in the department, it's been very disappointing."

Guzzetti says some students may not have been prepared for the changes.

"Sometimes these things happen without the consciousness of Harvard students," Guzzetti says. "The worst is for those people who expected to major in design and saw it vanish from under their feet."

But Moss says that VES faculty have been flexible in offering students the design courses they want to take.

"They've had to go searching," Moss says, explaining that some students have found courses to take at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology or the GSD. "It has certainly been disappointing for people whose pure interest was the part of the department that was lost."

"We're in a transition, and by necessity, that's a bit bumpy," Moss adds. "But it's producing vitality in the department."

Moss says he is enthusiastic about the diversity of programs he now sees in the studio arts track, and he describes the film/video track as stable.

Moss adds that the number of concentrators did not seem to be affected by the elimination of the design track.

Presently, there are 88 concentrators in the department, an increase from the 72 concentrators in the 1995-1996 school year and the 77 concentrators in the 1994-1995 school year.

Guzzetti says that it is hard to know if the department has lost potential concentrators due to the elimination of the design track since the department could have just as easily gained other concentrators attracted by the recent emphasis on film and studio arts.

Choosing VES

Moss says that based on a recent survey of first-years, 51 students expressed interest in the department.

"The faculty are approachable and exciting to be around," says Timothy D. Hirzel '00, who took an introductory drawing class last term and is currently enrolled in a photography class. "They seem interested in teaching."

Hirzel, who is taking VES 160: "Modernization in the Visual United States Environment" and VES 40ar: "Fundamentals of Still Photography" (see story, this page), says the content of his classes makes VES attractive.