"I think (and agree with Dean Pilbeam) that we need better overall curricular planning in the departments (coordinating faculty leaves and balancing conflicting goals, of [e.g.] departmental and Core courses). We shall work harder on this," Knowles writes.

The lower number this year is due to changes across the board in all subdivisions, but unusually large drops in Moral Reasoning and Historical Studies A, which both have five fewer offerings than last year, contributed to the overall decrease.

"As far as the actual numbers, the fact that there are three Moral Reasonings [this year] is unacceptable," says Eric M. Nelson '99, chair of the council's Student Affairs Committee, which has been examining the Core.

"We all know it has been a problem; I'm sure the Faculty is not unaware of it," he says.

"Three is too few," admits Michael J. Sandel, professor of government, who chairs the subcommittee on Moral Reasoning and Social Analysis and also teaches the popular fall course Moral Reasoning 22: "Justice."

"We are working hard to assure that there will be more next year," Sandel adds. "It has always been difficult to recruit Faculty to teach Core classes in Moral Reasoning because there is a relatively small pool of Harvard Faculty who teach in the areas of moral and political philosophy."

Knowles says he hopes to solve this problem soon by adding more Faculty positions in areas like philosophy, which should enlarge the pool of faculty for Moral Reasoning courses.

Knowles says he expects the funding for the new positions to come from the ongoing capital campaign.

However, additions to the Core can take time, as new courses must undergo a lengthy examination process.

"It takes a year or two for a course to be fully fleshed out from the proposal," says Pope Professor of Latin Language and Literature R.J. Tarrant, the professor of Literature and Arts C-61: "The Rome of Augustus."

"There is a hiatus between when Faculty end one course and start up another one," Tarrant adds. "That's probably the best suggestion I can come up with for an answer."

However, Knowles also suggestes that the Core may have been neglected, noting that the Faculty's energies over the past several years have focused on improving the non-Core curriculum.

Faculty Involvement

Although some say that Faculty are willing to teach Cores, others say that the rigors involved in teaching a Core course alienate some Faculty members.

"Some people don't want to do it. They prefer the freedom of departmental courses, where they can teach whatever they want and no one looks over the syllabi," says Fernandez-Cifuentes.