The Value of Brackets

One of the aspects of the book that has come under the most criticism is the bracketed courses, those courses listed in the department that are projected to be offered in future years.

Omar M. Siddiqui '97 says that bracketed courses, often touted as an aid for planning a course of study, led him wrong when a language class, Urdu 104: "The Classical Urdu Ghazal and Its Symbolism," remained bracketed for his entire undergraduate career.

"For four years it was in the course catalog but never offered," Siddiqui says. "I always wanted to take it from my first semester."

However, Siddiqui says this case is atypical. "Generally, bracketed courses are good to help structure your curriculum but it is obviously pointless if it is never offered."

Shin, who concentrated in Biochemical Sciences, says bracketed courses as a whole are "just confusing."

"I think they should only put in the courses for that year," Shin says. "Why show a class if it is not offered that year?"

Halpern says he remembered bracketed courses from his years at the College, but they were more of a help than a concern.

"It was not a big deal that there were bracketed classes that were offered every other year," Halpern says.

"There were a lot of visiting professors who had seminars," Halpern addd, which he says helped fill in when other professors did not teach their classes.

Bok says that bracketed classes are really a reflection of the needs of the Faculty for sabbaticals or other time away from teaching.

"The real question to ask is how well is it managed by departments and how difficult it is on students," Bok says.

Bok also says that to ensure a reasonable number of classes are offered, departments must make sure all of the professors teaching in one area do not go on leave at the same time, as happened in the Moral Reasoning subfield of the Core this year.