Jorge I. Dominguez, Thomson professor of government and chair of the Core subcommittee on Historical Studies, says he will support whatever legislation the CRC presents, but was not convinced less requirements were necessary.

"I'm not persuaded of the need to go from eight to seven courses. I need to be shown that the constraint comes from the Core, and not from concentrations or the student's own choice," Dominguez says. "A pre-med English concentrator is going to have a tough time, but he or she is an intelligent student and that's a choice they didn't have to make."

Rebecca A. Dean '99, a pre-med English concentrator, says Core requirements on top of her concentration and pre-medical courses forced her to take five classes this semester.

"I don't like all the requirements," Dean says. "If I want to study something different, I shouldn't have to take five classes to meet the Core requirements."

President Neil L. Rudenstine says he is sympathetic to the plight of students like Dean, and is supportive of the CRC's proposal.

"As I've gone around to undergraduates in the past few years, I would say that the one criticism I've heard more than others has been not enough flexibility with respect to electives," Rudenstine says.

"There's only so much one can give, but I think moving that bar a little further down will help," he adds.

Sarah K. Hurwitz '99, who co-authored an Undergraduate Council proposal on the Core, says she didn't feel the recommendations addressed the true problem.

"I respect the intent of the change from eight to seven--they're trying to allow for more flexibility, but I don't think lowering the number of courses by one really does that," Hurwitz says.

"There are still several Core areas in which there aren't enough classes to take, and the only real way to create flexibility is to allow for a number of departmental courses to serve as Cores," she adds.

Other recommendations in the paper include encouraging Dean of the Faculty Jeremy R. Knowles to consider strongly reducing section size in the Core and increasing the number of junior Faculty teaching Core courses.

Currently, 93 percent of the Core courses are taught by senior Faculty members.

Other Options?

In the Undergraduate Council's proposal on the Core, departmental bypasses were praised as a way of adding course offerings without requiring extra effort from professors.

"I don't mind taking departmental classes. My Cores are usually huge and stupid," says Dean. "I think other classes in the department would just be better classes."