"I have enjoyed giving this course, and have the feeling that it has been well received by a long line of Harvard students, at least so I am told by former Teaching Fellows and former students," writes Lockwood in an e-mail.

According to Gordon, professors like to tell people about the subjects they love and teaching Cores is a "way to give training and experience to graduate students."

Core Woes

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For some professors, allowing a departmental course to count for Core credit is not a daunting decision. Yet, Gordon says, "There are a lot of reasons a professor would think twice about teaching a Core course. Enrollment is likely to jump, and some would prefer to teach 50, not 250."

Gordon notes that "you have a lot of pressure to be an entertainer" and the "Core guidelines can be seen as restrictive."

In the Historical Studies categories, there are a number of restrictions, namely that Historical Studies A must cover material up to present times, and Historical Studies B must be about a discreet event. Thus, "some great [departmental] courses may not fit well into A or B...A lot of courses would require reworking" [in order to meet Core guidelines], Gordon says.

Susan Lewis says that some Faculty members like to keep departmental classes small for concentrators, even if their classes do fit the guidelines for the Core.

Moreover, many departmental classes are designed to achieve very different goals from Core classes.