"This means that a Core course in a foreign literature can not, for example, assume that students have a reading knowledge of the language in which the texts were written and a Science A Core course can not presume that students have completed Math 1b or are taking Math 21 simultaneously as department courses in those areas might," she says.

Accessibility, however, does not equal easy, say those who teach Core classes. In fact, if anything, they can be more difficult.

"First of all, Core classes are not always scaled down in difficulty and intensity," says Todd. "My Literature and Arts C-30 [How and What Russia Learned to Read: The Rise of Russian Literary Culture], for instance, has more readings and more assignments than the departmental course it replaces, Slavic 145A."

Clark says though Core classes are introductory in terms of content and method, they still may present difficulties to students.

"For some of the students enrolled, a Core can be more challenging than their other courses because it's in a unfamiliar field," Clark writes in an e-mail message.

Johnson says that at least in terms of the Moral Reasoning discipline, the skills demanded are not based in specific knowledge.

Moral Reasoning 22, Johnson says, tries to teach students to construct well-reasoned arguments about moral issues--skills which a chemistry concentrator might master as easily as a women's studies major.

Other students cite Core workloads, which are often full of the 'great books' and introductory texts in certain fields, as being as reason why Core courses can be especially challenging.

"I think Core classes are not easier," says Chun-Der L. Li '02. "They are more work, because of all of the reading and the papers that we have to do."