One way to solve the problem of laying off teaching fellows without pre-registration is to purposely under-estimate the number of students in a class, which is the strategy adopted by the Core Office.

Elizabeth W. Swain, assistant director of the Core Program, says the Core Office makes an estimate based on factors such as the number of students in the class last time and the number of offerings in the Core area that year. Professors are then given funds to hire teaching fellows for two-thirds of that number.

Swain says the Core Office has a policy of not firing graduate students who have been hired, though she says the situation does not crop up often because of the conservative projections.

"If there are fewer students, we honor the commitment we had in advance," Swain says.

But professors and teaching fellows say that these under-enrollment projections often lead to another set of problems, namely of teaching fellows being hired at the last minute with little time for training or preparation.

The day after study cards are due (one week into the term) professors receive the final number of enrollees in their courses, and at that point they are obligated to find new teaching fellows.

Jones Professor of Classical Greek Literature Gregory Nagy, teacher of "Literature and Arts C-14: The Concept of the Hero in Greek Civilization," an ardent supporter of pre-registration for Core classes, says that trying to train his TFs after the course has begun can often end up "shortchanging both the teacher and the student."

"You want to be able to supervise the proper training for your TFs," Nagy says. "It is really a kind of seminar situation where, unlike concentration courses, you have to start almost a new apprenticeship."

While no one interviewed said that teaching fellows or assistants hired later in the game were less qualified, professors say that the ability to prepare before classes begin is crucial to the learning process.

"It is not fair to ask them to enter a course not having prepared over the summer," says Jan M. Ziolkowski, professor of Medieval Latin and Comparative Literature, and teacher of many core classes over the past few years. "It really puts an enormous burden on section leaders coming in."

The Proposal

Fagen recently sent an e-mail to council leaders inquiring about the possibility of voluntary, non-binding, pre-registration program.

According to Fagen, his proposal, which is only in its earliest stages, would ask students to submit a list of courses that they planned to take the following semester.

From this list, administrators could estimate the number of enrollees in each course for the following term, allowing professors to hire approximately the right number of teaching fellows for the course.

Fagen says this proposal would ensure graduate students' teaching positions without compromising undergraduate student choice.