YOU AND US JUST TALKING

But departments across the College are brainstorming how to draw students to their faculty.

The lack of interaction between overworked students and busy professors troubles Psychology Professor Mahzarin R. Banaji, the head tutor in the Psychology Department

“I know [students] are all running in many different directions, but what Harvard would like to do is to create much more interaction between undergraduates and faculty,” says Banaji.

“I do want to see more of you and us just talking together,” she says.

While the office hours system is unlikely to change in the near future, Banaji says the department has developed new programs to foster communication between concentrators and faculty.

The Psychology Department now hosts monthly dinners with a faculty member and ten to fifteen students in an undergraduate house.

Banaji says both faculty members and students are “having a blast” at these dinners.

While some departments have found methods to foster student-faculty relationships, Miron says large class sizes remain a fundamental problem behind poor office hours attendance.

“For me, the ideal way to promote student/faculty communication is to have smaller classes, so students and faculty interact in a way that is natural, important, and useful. This then provides a foundation for additional discussion, friendship, and collaboration,” Miron says. “It just becomes the norm for students and faculty to interact.”

Economics Department Chair John Y. Campbell says that the department is currently offering an increasing number of small classes through the recently reinstated junior seminar program, which was cut in the wake of the financial crisis.

ALTERNATIVE ENCOURAGEMENT

Some professors have undertaken their own creative adjustments to ensure students come to their office hours.

Biology Professor Robert A. Lue, who teaches the introductory course Life Science 1b, says that holding office hours in Annenberg has helped encourage students to stop by with their questions­—attendance last semester ranged from four to fifteen students per session.

Biology Professor Daniel L. Hartl says that he hangs around after lecture, and that’s when he gets most of his face time with students.