Plus, as a campus resource, the HFA should be geared toward enriching our appreciation and understanding of film, not squeezing pennies from our wallets. The $5 price tag puts those films a bit out of the bargain range.

Year in and year out, the Core office makes the same mistake on the first day of shopping period: putting Core classes into classrooms too small to accommodate first-day attendance, and then having to move the classes to larger rooms during the class itself or before the next class meeting.

Take Historical Study A-51: "The Modern World Economy." According to Professor of Government Jeffry Frieden, the Core office expected 40 students, at most, if that, and so assigned the class the small Sever 102. When more than four times that number showed up yesterday, spilling out into the hall, Professor Frieden decided to move to the considerably more spacious auditorium at the other end of the building. By the time he began lecturing, more than half an hour had been wasted.

The same thing happened with Literature and Arts A-46: "The City and the Novel," which was moved from the cramped Emerson 305 down two flights to the much larger Emerson 105.

Wouldn't it make more sense to start the classes off in the bigger lecture halls--if they're available--and then move to a smaller space if need be?

The best thing about not letting upperclass students move into their houses until Wednesday: students had two more questions to ask each other--in addition to "How was your summer?" and "What classes are you taking?", we had "Where are you staying this week?" and "What are you doing back early?" Social life was greatly improved as a result.

The worst thing about not letting upperclass students move in until Wednesday: pressuring parents to take time off from work to come up mid-week, or being forced to move in without your stuff for three days. Maybe Harvard should reimburse parents for the time they missed at work this week driving us, or driving our stuff, to Cambridge.

Meteorologists predict that due to an unusually strong El Nino in the Pacific, we could see enormous snowfalls here in the Northeast this winter--perhaps even topping the record set two years back.

So get out there and enjoy the sun and warmth while they last. We may be buried in the white stuff before you know it.

Geoffrey C. Upton's column appears on alternate Tuesdays.