"I hate to waste a week of teaching. It's just excruciating," Todd says.

Todd says he is not satisfied with shopping period in its current form, but some professors say that they believe the advantages of shopping period outweigh the inconveniences.

"It has a lot of dreadful aspects," Gingerich says, but he ultimately comes down in favor of having a trial period. "The advantages outweigh the disadvantages."

Grad Student Interests

Professors and administrators add that the graduate student voice is an important part of the debate over shopping period.

Adam P. Fagen, president of the Graduate Student Council (GSC), came before the Undergraduate Council in February to propose the creation of a non-binding preregistration for undergraduates.

"The issue that we're concerned about is having more of a guarantee of teaching positions," Fagen says. "None of the grad students have any interest in getting rid of shopping period."

Although most graduate students say they join Fagen in pushing for a revision of shopping period, they add that they believe the period has real educational value.

"I'd rather have the flexibility, all things considered," says Felix S.H. Lee, a teaching fellow in Social Analysis 10: "Principles of Economics."

Lee says he feels shopping period has been an inconvenience, but "it hasn't had any effect on my teaching," he says.

Fagen says that although the number of graduate students who end up without a job is very small, shopping period creates a lot of needless stress and anxiety.

The easiest way to solve the problem, he continues, would be to have students submit a list of courses that they planned to take the following semester.

"The way I might envision something is that it would be required, but maybe anonymous, and totally non-binding," Fagen says.

"Graduate students don't care who's in the course," Fagen says. "But having a vague idea is important."

Fagen says that while it is important for students to be well-informed about a course before they commit to it, it is in students' best interest for instructors to be well-informed as well.