Four years after Florida, the buildup to this year’s Presidential election was clouded by the fear that problems with electronic and paper ballots would disenfranchise voters throughout the nation.

But Susan E. McGregor ’05 may one day solve those problems.

As an Interactive Information Design concentrator, she says she studies “the way that information is presented in an interactive context—obviously web pages, but also including things like electronic voting machines and ATMS.”

Her thesis, which she will submit this spring, will use “principles of cognitive psychology to create a theory on how devices should be designed based on how we process information.”

This may sound like intriguing fare, but Harvard undergraduates are unlikely to have stumbled upon any courses in Interactive Information Design while thumbing through their Courses of Instruction this past fall.

McGregor is one of only 19 undergraduates enrolled in a “special concentration” designed individually by the student and his or her faculty adviser.

McKay Professor of Applied Mathematics Anthony G. Oettinger, who was the chair of the Standing Committee on Special Concentrations for 25 years before stepping down last year, says that special concentrations are “available for students trying to do something that does not fit the regular concentrations but is doable at Harvard.”

The committee, established in 1971, exists to accommodate students whose academic interests are not contained within the bounds of existing departments, Oettinger says.

The 19 current special concentrators represent a downward trend from the average of 30 to 40 students Oettinger saw during his tenure, he says. And as the College’s ongoing curricular review encourages increase flexibility within and across existing departments, he says the number may drop even further—though “having an escape hatch for students is not a bad idea.”

Concentrators currently study such eclectic topics as leadership, environmental conservation, and ancient architecture and its modern applications, but administrators are careful to warn that a special concentration is not suited for all students.

“You don’t do this lightly,” says Deborah Foster, the head tutor for Special Concentrations. “Special concentrations are for people who know what they want to do” and are willing to do a substantial amount of independent work to complete the 10-part application and construct their own curriculum.

CLIMBING THE HILL

Alexis J. Pozen ’07, who is a special concentrator in Health Policy, says that her concentration does require an abnormally large time commitment, but that she feels it is worth it.

“It makes Harvard seem like a lot smaller of a place,” she says. “You get a lot of personal attention when you’re a special concentrator,” referring to close interaction with her faculty adviser.

Pozen says her special concentration has allowed her to study health policy in a way that the government department, economics department or Health Policy Certificate Program independently could not.