While the number of offerings rose, many first-years were still denied the opportunity of participating in seminars—something Doherty hopes to remedy in the future.

“We’d like to continue to expand both the number and range of seminars so that more—even all—interested students can be accommodated,” Doherty says.

She says she plans to address the persisting problem of popularity of some courses at the expense of others.

“We need to fine-tune the range of offerings so that there are fewer variations in application numbers among seminars,” she says. “This will make it easier to ensure spots for students.”

Doherty is also pushing for departments to consider granting concentration credit for Seminars so that more first-years would be encouraged to make the seminar part of their plan of study.

“For example, more than one student told me that in going over their long term plans with advisors, they were told that a freshman seminar would not ‘fit’ into their plans, that there wasn’t enough time in their schedules,” says Senior Preceptor in Romance Languages and Literature Elvira G. Di Fabio. “Obviously this type of advice does not support the Freshman Seminar Program.”

But that attitude might change as the program lobbies to be recognized as a valuable and relevant part of students’ studies.

“Last year, we asked all concentrations to consider whether, under what conditions freshman seminars might count for concentration credit,” Doherty says.

A number of concentrations—including English, History, Math, and Music Departments—have agreed to evaluate the Freshman Seminar Program over the next few years.

—Staff writer Anat Maytal can be reached at maytal@fas.harvard.edu.