One week ago, Fletcher University Professor Cornel R. West ’74 stood before an overflowing Lowell Lecture Hall and vowed that no student would be turned away from Afro-American Studies 10, “Introduction to Afro-American Studies.”

He kept his vow, although it’s taken the past week to work out the details.

Today, all 606 students enrolled in the class will have a place waiting for them in the lower-level meeting room of St. Paul’s Parish—the new location of the class.

Working Around a Lottery

After West expressly indicated to the Registrar that Afro-American Studies 10 would not be lotteried, the Registrar’s office spent much of last week searching for a location large enough and near enough to Harvard Square to house the class.

Dean of the College Harry R. Lewis ’68 wrote in an e-mail that the Administrative Board had alerted tutors and proctors early last week that Afro-American Studies 10 might have to be lotteried and students could be left searching for a fourth class.

Though most professors lottery a course if they cannot fit everyone in a lecture hall as large as Lowell, West seems to have been able to avoid a lottery by finding an unusual lecture space.

At one point, both Memorial Church and Loew’s Theater on Church Street were considered as possible locations.

St. Paul’s lower-level meeting room—which is used by the Parish for a number of purposes, from a food panty to a place of worship for students—was selected last Wednesday after the Registrar explained Harvard’s predicament to St. Paul’s Pastor, Monsignor Dennis Sheehan.

Sheehan agreed to help out.

“It seemed like the neighborly thing to do,” he said.

According to Sheehan, there is currently no financial arrangement between Harvard and his Bow Street church for the use of the space.

Because the Parish has no staff to clean the lower-meeting room after it is used by the class, student are being asked not to bring any food or drink to lecture. But students said that was the last thing on their mind—they were just happy to be in the class.

Marques J. Redd ’04 said he was relieved that the class would not be lotteried because he had not selected another course to take.

And though Katie A. McEnaney ’03 said she could have switched her French class and picked up a Shakespeare core class, when asked how long she thought it would have taken her to get caught up in those classes, McEnaney said, “I don’t even want to know.”

—Staff writer Kate L. Rakoczy can be reached at rakoczy@fas.harvard.edu