In a meeting yesterday of two top committees that oversee education at Harvard, faculty, administrators and students agreed that the structure and function of sections needs to be rethought

The joint meeting of the Committees on Undergraduate and Graduate Education was called by members of the Undergraduate Council’s Student Affairs Committee (SAC) to address student grievances over the quality of their teaching fellows (TFs).

Yesterday’s discussion veered away from how to improve TF quality to pointing out the weaknesses of Harvard’s sections and reexamining how to make these class meetings a more effective use of time.

“Section is an opportunity for discussion that is necessary for mastery of the material. If that doesn’t happen, it is a great loss,” said Adam P. Fagan, a graduate student who has been a TF in a number of undergraduate science courses.

Students present said problems with sections were not necessarily the fault of the TF, but of the very structure of sections themselves.

“You can’t blame TFs for a bad section when you have had 18 chapters of reading and everything is a free-for-all,” said SAC Chair Rohit Chopra ’04.

Administrators present at the meeting also said they saw flaws in the way sections are used.

“The problem here is really how much planning goes into section, and this should receive significant scrutiny,” said Dean of the Graduate School of Arts and Sciences (GSAS) Peter T. Ellison.

Dean of Undergraduate Education Susan G. Pedersen ’81-’82 agreed and said professors should take more responsibility for their sections.

“The Faculty are the ones who are ultimately responsible for everything that goes on in their course,” she said.

But Pedersen also acknowledged that planning an effective section takes significant effort.

“The model for how to run a large lecture course is hugely time-consuming for Faculty members,” she said.

Pedersen suggested that the University look into ways to help faculty—particularly those teaching large core classes—effectively design their sections.

In addition to lack of faculty guidance, those present cited problems with TF training and student motivation.

Ellison said more uniform standards could be helpful. Currently, individual departments are charged with creating their own plans for hiring and training their TFs.