Closed Door Policy

"We ask of you your involvement in our community," reads the Summer School director's message to summer students in the official catalogue. In this same catalogue, however, the director's invitation to intellectual "involvement" seems to be belied by the announcement of charges for auditing courses. And on Monday, student "checkers" will assiduously begin guarding classroom doors to ensure that no one gains admittance to a class in which he is not properly enrolled.

Summer school officials have contended that the charges for auditing are necessary, first, to the budget of the School, and, second, to prevent people from taking advantage of Harvard's facilities without paying. This second argument, however, only justifies charging students who do not take any courses for credit.

Once a student is paying to take courses, an additional charge for auditing simply discourages him from attending other classes. One of the greatest riches of Harvard during the winter is the opportunity it offers students to hear professors hold forth on their specialities--even when the student is not formally enrolled in their courses. And such a policy has not resulted in over-crowded lecture halls.

Little value can be placed on the Summer School's present system which allows a student five visiting passes for the eight-week session. Under this arrangement a student must obtain the pass in advance and must specify the class he wants to attend and the date on which he plans to go. Such advance planning is as rare as it is admirable.

Eliminating the charge for students already enrolled for credit or non-credit courses would entail no particular administrative problems. Summer school privilege cards could easily serve as tickets of admission to any course. Such a system would also presumably eliminate a great deal of paper work necessitated by the present arrangement.

Budgetary problems may present more of a difficulty for the School (though it is hard to understand how the present $15 charges contribute significantly toward the operation of the School.) But obviously it must face this problem and make a choice. The raison d'etre of the Summer School has always--at least ostensibly--been an intellectual one. Its goal should indeed be "active involvement" in an intellectual community, as the director suggests. But the Summer School actively discourages such an involvement by its closed door policy on auditing. That purely financial considerations should dictate such practice at Harvard seems very regrettable indeed.